


3rd Floor Down

by NoelleLilacNotte, Yiiiiikes



Category: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
Genre: Bulimia, Canon-Typical Violence, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Eating Disorders, Extremely unhealthy relationships, Food Issues, Kidnapping, Mindbreaking, Murder, Mutilation, Nny is all yan and no dere, Other, Parental Abuse, Physical Torture, Psychological Torture, References to Child Abuse, References to Sexual Harassment, Serial Killing, Stalking, Starvation, Stockholm Syndrome, Torture, Unhealthy Relationships, Yandere, demisexual Johnny, i guess, implied rape, someone stop us before this becomes pretentious gothic prose
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:48:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22075726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoelleLilacNotte/pseuds/NoelleLilacNotte, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yiiiiikes/pseuds/Yiiiiikes
Summary: You’ve been kidnapped by an unhinged serial killer with questionable taste in fashion, but look on the bright side—he seems to like you.
Relationships: Devi D & Reader, Johnny C/Reader, Nny/Reader
Comments: 16
Kudos: 100





	1. The Basement

**Author's Note:**

> 27 days in this cruddy basement, and you’re starting to look forward to seeing your captor.

27 days. There’s a heavy, uncomfortable metal collar around your neck, you’re sitting on a tattered, scratchy plaid blanket, there’s bloodstains of the wall of the room, there’s screaming emanating from the floor below you and the ceiling above, and you’ve been here for 27 days.

Your captor hasn’t fed you more than 4 times since you’ve been here. He only seems to do so when it seems like you’re about to keel over. It’s not like you’re not used to the hunger though, so you’re ok with it. You’re used to the feeling of cold steel cutting into your arms, and the sounds of yelling keeping you awake. You’re ok with that.

It was cold though, you wish he’d turn on the heat.

The cold is the second worst part of it all. It permeates, it leeches. It's hard to focus on anything else but the _annoying chill_ that keeps your arms covered in goosebumps.

The cold isn't really even that bad. But you've been here for 27 days, and you're running out of things to think about. The cold is the second worst thing about being kidnapped and chained up in someones basement.

The first worst thing is undoubtedly the boredom. The room is empty, your brain is empty. The screams above you and the screams below you sound exactly the same as they did when you first got here, even though you're fairly certain that there's been at least 4 different people screaming in each of those rooms.

After 27 days of being chained to a wall in a cold empty room, you run out of things to think about. You've started to almost look forward to visits from your captor.

He's strange. He's manic. He's unpredictable. He's original.

He is not boring.

“It’s ok to look forward to seeing him.” You rationalize to yourself. “It’s just something new, and sometimes he feeds you.” You pretend that’s the only reason you’re anticipating his visit today. It’s easy to focus on the idea of food. It makes it easier to ignore that you find his genuine laugh endearing.

You’ve even gotten his footsteps memorized. The sound of his metal-toed boots shuffling across the squeaky floor is familiar now, almost comforting. Sometimes hearing those footsteps means food, sometimes it means some new form of active torture to endure, and sometimes it just means your warden, Johnny he said his name was, would sit on the floor and talk to you. It’s nice when he talks to you.

It was no surprise when the metallic shuffling stopped at your door, or when the grimy, rusted hinges squeaked as it opened.

“Oh sweet, you’re still alive! You’re so quiet compared to the rest of them, I almost thought you’d up and died without me!”

"Yep. Still here." You say, but there's no feeling in the words. No sarcasm, no surprise, no anything. You're just stating a fact. Despite everything, you are still here.

You scan him for food, he's not holding anything (well, that's a lie. He's holding a massive knife) but his pockets are clearly stuffed with something. You struggle to sit up, to pull your face off of the scratchy blanket and make direct eye contact with your kidnapper.

You could have just stayed laying on the floor. It would have taken a lot less energy. But instead you went out of your way to prop yourself up against the wall and _really look at him._

Surprisingly, he does something similar. He squats at the edge of the blanket and stares at you. His prodding eyes used to be unnerving, you felt like he was looking into your soul, searching for your sins. Nowadays though, it sort of felt like you were doing that to him.

He looks almost as shitty as you feel. There’s no mirror in your room, but you can feel your greasy hair sticking to your forehead. You’re sure you stink. He seems equally unkempt, the jet black bedhead he’s got is too tangled and ratty to be clean. The only difference, you think, is that your clothes are stained by sweat and grease, and his are stained with blood and dirt.

He makes a show of putting his chin in his hand, leaning his elbow on his knee as he squats down in front of you. His gaze is different than it was when you first got here, it’s more like childish curiosity than sadistic bloodlust.

“Can you even remember the last time you ate? Cuz I can’t. I know it wasn’t yesterday though. I was unconscious on the floor yesterday.”

“It’s been 4 days. I keep a calendar.”

You point to a crude set of tally-marks on the wall that you’d drawn with a nail that had popped out of the floor. Johnny nodded solemnly, like he understood something completely, but what it was you didn’t know.

"I should probably feed you then. Or maybe not. Do you think you could go for another couple of days?" You're so hungry you think if he held out his hand you might bite his fingers off.

"I _could_ go for longer. I would prefer not to though." The longest He had kept you from eating so far was 8 days. Now that was a really shitty week. You were pretty sure he had legitimately forgotten that you were down here.

He had showed up out of nowhere on day 8, dragging a screaming man by the hair. He stopped in his tracks when he saw you. He threw his head back and yelled "FUCK" before turning and leaving yanking the pleading man behind him (when they turned away, you noticed that the mans knees had been broken, bent in the wrong direction. Gross). He didn't bother closing the door behind him. You were chained up and delirious with hunger- you weren't going anywhere any time soon.

You faintly remember him stuffing food in your mouth not too long after that, using his hands to manually move your jaw up and down to make you chew. It was a weird experience. One that you would prefer not to repeat.

“Yeah I guess that’s true. I’ve got some frozen weenies upstairs...I think. Do you like weenies?”

You stare at him blankly, and shrug. You don’t really have an opinion one way or the other, as long as it’s food. Johnny seems to take this as a “yes”, because he stands up, his back making a loud crunching noise as he does, and claps his hands together with a grin.

“Weenies it is then! Mr Fuck has been up my ass all day to eat so I guess I’ll have some too. I’ll be back, you stay here!”

You glance at the chain attached to your collar. He follows your gaze, and barks out a laugh.

“Hah! Oh yeah, never mind.”

Your disappointment when he leaves is kind of disgusting. You should be glad you don't have to speak to him right now. You should be glad he's gone to get you food. _You should lunge and tear his throat out with your teeth when he comes back to feed you._ No, no. That's a bad thought. That one's getting repressed.

Besides, even if you tried you would fail. You don't know how you know that, with such certainty but you do. So you lay back down (more like fall back down) and wait for him to return.

You close your eyes and listen to the muffled sobs of the woman (or man?) the floor below you and imagine what her life was like before all this.

You imagine that she had a wildly successful creative life, but no valuable interpersonal relationships. You imagine that she was snatched off the street when she was on her way to adopt a cat to help with her crippling loneliness.

"Oh fuck, did you die while I was upstairs?" He's back. You're surprised you didn't notice him coming. You were so focused on the sad lady 12 feet below you that you hadn't heard the sound of his footsteps descending down the hall to your room.

"Not dead yet," you say, opening one eye to peer up at him.

He’s holding a cracked plate stacked with plain hot dogs, and the sight and smell of them makes your mouth water. He picks one of the sausages up and stuffs it into his mouth before holding the plate out to you. You’re desperate to stuff your face with the greasy things, but you know if you eat too fast and throw up, you’re not getting any more food. Plus, it’ll make Johnny mad at you. He’s been very vocal about how much he hates cleaning up after people. For some reason, you really don’t want him to be upset with you.

You take small bites, trying to savor the taste and feeling of food. Johnny looks at you expectantly, and when you’re done with the bite in your mouth, you look at him.

“Thank you, it’s really good.”

He beams. He’s back to sitting on the floor in front of you, cross-legged this time.

“You’re absolutely welcome! It’s about time someone in here got some manners. Most of them just go on some whiny spiel about how they miss their families, or the needles are hurting their eyes, or something like that. Disgraceful, honestly!”

He laughs, or more like cackles, hard enough that he nearly falls over onto his back. It’s cuter than it should be, all things considered.

Without thinking you say, "honestly, most of the stuff you've done has been stuff I already do to myself, so it's not that bothersome." Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. You just dug your own grave- knowing that you were taking all of this so easily would only make him find new ways to torture you.

You don't look at his face, you keep your eyes on your plate, not wanting to challenge him any more than you already have. But the curiosity is killing you so you make the mistake of glancing up at him. You expect to see pure sadism written all over his face. But you don't.

His expression is just... wrong. It doesn't look right on his face. You don't like the look he's giving you, and for the first time since you got here you're terrified.

You can’t exactly tell what the look means. You could call it a lot of things. Pity, confusion, annoyance, wonder, and if he were a little more stable, maybe compassion. Whatever it is, you don’t like it. You don’t like that he’s quiet either, he’s always so loud and willing to say whatever comes to mind. You like his screaming better than the other screams in this house.

The pair of you sit in silence for a moment, and you don’t like it. So you change the subject.

“So...can I ask what’s in your pockets? I’ve never seen you use them before.”

His hands fly to his pockets, like he'd forgotten about them entirely. He touches whatever it is that's in there and looks down at you.

"Nope! You can't ask what's in my pockets." You're honestly kind of relieved, even if he's not gonna show you the mysteries in his pockets (you're probably better off not knowing) you're glad he's not looking at you like _that_ anymore. His energy is back up, back to normal. Or at least whatever you could consider normal in regards to him.

You're _really_ curious about what he's keeping in there though. Oh! Something new to think about! What is in your kidnappers pockets! You smile, pleased to have found something to keep your mind occupied- you were afraid you might start going crazy if you didn't find something to think about.

A buzzing bell noise fills the room, paired with a particularly loud scream from deep beneath your room. Johnny shoots up to his feet, startling you.

“Doorbell!” He chimes, cheerfully. “I wonder if it’s that little cookie salesgirl, those things are delicious! Worse than crack!”

He makes a motion to grab the still-full plate, then decides against it.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll make you a deal.”

You cock your head to the side in confusion, and let him continue.

“I’ll let you have the rest of these, but you have to promise not to break the plate and stab me with it. You’re also not allowed to stab yourself, that wouldn’t be fun for either of us.”

"Deal." You say immediately. Honestly it wouldn't have even occured to you to stab him (or yourself). You'd be so full that you couldn't think.

"Enjoy!" He says, before turning and bolting upstairs. If it is a little girl selling cookies... you kind of hope he'll bring some to you.

But for now, you have weenies.


	2. It Gets Worse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get hurt. Nny and Nailbunny have a heart-to-heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nailbunny be dropping truth bombs left and right.

It’s only been 3 days this time when he comes back. He doesn’t have food this time, which isn’t exactly unexpected but still a bit disappointing. You’d be fine with just a little light conversation, but by the looks of him he isn’t in a happy mood.

There’s fresh blood stuck to his leather gloves and boots. He’s scowling, eyebrows knit together in frustration, or perhaps annoyance. One of his hands is clutching a curved knife, the other fidgeting with his sleeve. He looks at you, and makes a noise somewhere between a manic giggle and an angry growl.

“You will not FUCKING BELIVE THE SHIT I’VE HEARD TODAY! I swear, the NERVE of some people. The liquid SHIT they spew from their filthy fucking mouths, and then they have the AUDACITY to call ME the ugly one?!”

It's a gamble as to whether or not you should respond. On the one hand, if you do respond (and you do it _right_ ) you could put him at ease a little bit. Not that you cared about his feelings- this was purely for your safety. If you said the wrong thing however, he might kill you. On the other hand, if you don't say anything he can just scream until he runs out of steam and stomps off. Or your silence might infuriate him, and he might kill you.

There's a lot riding on the way that you respobd to his tangent. You think that agreeing with him, making him feel validated would be a safe bet.

"People can be really shitty," you say. He stops and bends down to look at you, getting uncomfortably close, much closer than even he could be okay with. Fuck shit fucking cunt, you definitely didn't respond properly, the look he's giving you could have killed you all on it's own.

"Like YOU have any room to FUCKING TALK." Shit shit shit you made him mad. You're so fucked, you should have just kept your stupid fucking mouth shut.

He points his blade at you in an accusatory manner. It gets dangerously close to nicking your chin, but then he sticks the thing point down into the floor and leans on it.

“Do you know why you’re in here, huh? DO YOU?!”

You shake your head no.

“It’s because you’re ungrateful. You have so much. You’re so beautiful, so immune to the day to day horrors lesser folk like me experience. I watched you for WEEKS before bringing you here. Day after day after day I saw you live your life, your sweet, wholesome, pretty little life, and not once, NOT ONCE, did you smile. You have so much, and you’re asked so little, and you couldn’t even fucking ACT like you appreciated it.”

You stare at him as he screams, his entire frame shaking with rage at every word. His eye twitches, pupils dilating wildly.

“You...you deserve to be here. You deserve to be hungry and cold and miserable in here, just like the rest of them. I-I don’t know why...I don’t know why I haven’t just...just KILLED YOU YET. Why? Tell me! Tell me why I haven’t killed you! It would be so easy. Just poke a hole in that pretty neck of yours and drain you dry. So why? What makes YOU so special?! Why haven’t I killed you? Why don’t I WANT to?!”

You couldn't think of anything to say, even if you tried. You should be enraged, terrified, offended at least. No one _deserves_ the treatment you've experienced. Except... Maybe _you_ do. He's not wrong about you. You did have a pretty easy life by most standards, and you asked yourself every single day why you couldn't just _be happy._

Above everything else, you felt... bad for him. The man who kidnapped you off the street and chained to the wall in his basement. You didn't even know his name but for whatever odd reason, his distress about not _wanting to fucking murder you_ made your heart ache.

You couldn't help but focus on the fact that he said you were beautiful. This was not the time or the place to be feeling flattered but... It did feel sort of nice when you ignored everything else he had said.

"Maybe it's because..." Shit. You and your stupid mouth again. He looks at you expectantly, waiting for an answer. When he realizes you aren't going to supply him with one, he screams again.

“SHUT UP! SHUT THE FUCK UP! God...I can’t even hear myself think. You’re too loud. Everyone’s too fucking loud. I need some earplugs or something. I’m going upstairs. Keep fucking quiet.”

You nod feverishly, scared to say anything to him, lest it set him off even worse.

You closed your eyes and listened to him slam the door and stomp upstairs. This was too much for one day. The adrenaline faded once you couldn’t hear him anymore, and you curled up on the cold floor. You wish you had a blanket.

Upstairs was quiet. Johnny liked quiet. But like all things he enjoyed, it didn’t last.

“That was mean, Nny.”

“What do you know, you’re just a dead bunny.”

“I know the same as you. I know that you like that one, but you yelled at them. Why’d you do that, Nny? You wanted them to smile, you said so yourself. This just seems counterproductive.”

"Shut the fuck up!" Johnny deeply regretted rambling to Nail Bunny about you- the one person he just couldn't kill.

He hated you. He wanted you dead. He loved your smile. He wanted to gut you like a fish and strangle you with your own insides.

"That look! That stupid fucking look their face!" Johnny raged. "You don't get to look at me like that, like I make you sad. Fuck you! FUCK YOU!"

“Calm down, Nny. If you stomp too hard, you’ll break right through the floor.”

“I DON’T NEED TO CALM DOWN! I NEED ANSWERS!”

“If you want answers, you need questions.”

“I’VE BEEN ASKING QUESTIONS ALL DAMN DAY! I WANT TO KNOW WHY I DON’T KILL THEM!”

“That’s the wrong question.”

“Will you STOP being so fucking cryptic and just tell me what you’re trying to say?”

“You already know why you haven’t killed them, it’s because you like them. The question isn’t if you like them, it’s why.”

Johnny lets out a noise somewhere between a war cry and a wail, as he pulls his hair.

"I don't like them! They're a terrible shitty excuse of a person and I can't stand looking at their pretty fucking face!"

"That's not what you thought of them a week and a half ago when they laughed at your joke about the man on the floor above them."

"THAT JOKE WAS FUCKING FUNNY AND ANYONE WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR WOULD HAVE LAUGHED AT IT, THEY'RE NOT SPECIAL."

“That’s not true. You’ve never been so conflicted before. They must be special. Otherwise they’d be dead.”

“Nailbunny?”

“Yes, Nny?”

“I don’t like you. Not one bit.”

"That's not true either, Nny. The sooner you admit to yourself that they're special the sooner you can stop feeling awful about keeping them alive."

Johnny grumbled and groaned indecipherablly. He was exhausted. Not physically, just of this conversation.

"I'm going out." He declared.

"Nny, wait you should-"

"I'm going out!" He shouted, to drown out Nail Bunny's voice. He said it over and over again until he was nearly half a mile away from his house.

The people at the dingy 8-12 only reminded him of why he was annoyed in the first place. People, disgusting, obnoxious, self-riotous animals. He hated them, all of them. Or rather, almost all of them.

God, he needed a brain freezey. Sugar, cold, mind-numbing pain, anything to forget this bullshit. Fortunately for him, and even more fortunately for the cashier, this store had a working slush machine.

While he filled up a cup with as much cherry brain freezey as it could hold, a woman caught his eye. She was middle aged, no one special. But she was carrying a big stack of papers. He couldn't see most of the paper but the top of it read simply 'Missing Person'.

It was probably someone he'd killed already. At that thought he noticed the feeling of ice on his hands. The freezey was overflowing.

Johnny pulled his hand back and licked the spillage off of his fingers. Stupid poster distracting him, the missing person was probably some ugly rotting soul who didn't deserve to be found anyways.

He didn’t think much of it until he’d gotten to the counter and paid for his drink, when he saw the copy the cashier was pinning to the corkboard behind her. It was you. Someone made a missing poster for you.

This fact simultaneously infuriated and amused Nny. On the one hand, it meant _somebody_ cared about you enough to go looking, just another thing you’d taken for granted. But on the other hand, it was funny that this lady thought _posters_ of all things would help get you back.

He sipped his icy treat. He stared at your picture. He saw the woman with the stack of posters go to leave the store. He tapped on her shoulder.

“Hey, can I have one of those?”

The woman frantically shoved one into his empty hand.

“Yes, yes of course! There’s a number and email, please please let me know if you’ve seen them!”

“...ok.” Nny lied.

Once the woman had left the store, he followed suit. He tore the bottom half of the poster off, the part with the names and numbers and other useless information, and tossed it into the trash. The other half of the paper stayed in his hand the whole walk home.

You really did look lovely in that picture.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He really does like how you look in that picture, you know.


	3. Doll-Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You’ve been here so long, you’ve forgotten your name.

Johnny seemed much calmer when he came back to your room the next morning. He seemed apologetic, if a little annoyed. You were too tired to sit up, but you did your best to look up at him.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

"I brought this for you." Johnny held out a candy bar- it was from a brand you didn't recognize but you were grateful anyways. You tried to lift your arm to take it but you were too weak, too exhausted. After a moment of watching you struggle, Johnny dropped the candy on the floor for you.

"Thank you." You said, and you meant it.

"You're welcome." He said. He looked like a child trying to impress their crush and getting embarrassed when their efforts are acknowledged. It's kind of cute in a creepy sort of way.

After a few feeble attempts, you managed to pick up the candy and take a few bites. It’s chocolate, so that’s good at least. Johnny is giving you a look again, another one of his indecipherable manic expressions. He doesn’t stop staring at you the whole time you eat, his eyes tracing over every detail of your face.

It’s creepy. He’s just sitting there, watching you, perched on his knees like an owl staring down a fat little mouse. You wonder if he wants you to say something. It’s been a while since you’ve used your voice, so that might not be a good idea. But you don’t want to upset him. You don’t want him to leave.

"Where did you get this? I've never had one of these before. It's really good." It wasn't that good. But you hadn't eaten in a long ass time so, anything even remotely edible was considered beyond gourmet to your poor neglected tastebuds.

"From the 8-12 eleven blocks from here. I went last night." He seemed... smug. Not like he was trying to rub it in that he could go wherever he wanted and you couldn't but like he was a child receiving praise for his scribbled artwork.

Jeez, you were comparing Johnny to a child a lot today. You wondered if there was something strangely freudian going on there. You decided that even though your list of things to think about grew shorter by the hour, you didn't want to think about _that._

With the shred of strength the candy had given you, you sat up. Johnny seemed to shrink a little bit when you did, like he was ashamed.

“Hey...I’ve got a weird question. Like, weirder than normal.”

“Oh?”

“What’s your name?”

That made you pause. You’d been here so long, a full month, even if it felt like years. In trying to distract yourself, to keep your brain occupied, you realized you’d forgotten.

“I...I don’t know.”

Johnny raised his eyebrow and pulled his lips into a tight line.

“You don’t know.”

“I don’t remember. I think it had an A in it? Or maybe it was an E...”

Your stomach churned. Maybe that candy bar wasn't a gift, maybe Johnny was finally killing you.

"You'd think you would remember something like that."

"It's been a really long time since I've used my name," you're quick to explain. "Like, I stopped using it way before you even... brought me here." It didn't feel right to say 'before you kidnapped me at a bus stop at two in the morning.' That sounded ugly, and impersonal. "I'm almost positive it started with a consonant. No wait, it might have been a vowel. I think I've forgotten the difference between the two."

"If you don't know your name, and I don't know your name then what the fuck am I supposed to call you?"

You gave a weak shrug.

"You can call me whatever you want to. Not like I'm in a position to object to it."

Johnny sprung up off the ground, scaring the shit out of you.

"Yes! I'll give you a new name! And I'll be the only person in the world who knows it! Well, you'll also know but you don't count."

You winced internally, but you know he was right. You weren’t getting out of here anytime soon, and it’s not like you had much of a choice in anything nowadays. So in a certain sense, yeah, you didn’t count. Johnny, seemingly unaware of your thoughts on his comment, tapped his chin with a bony finger.

“It should be something meaningful. I don’t usually like that, names being super deep or whatever, but this is a special case. You really are very lovely, so maybe...Barbie? No, that’s stupid. How about Beau?”

He didn’t give you time to respond before snapping his fingers and grinning at you.

“No, no, no, wait, I’ve got it. I’ll call you Doll.”

“Doll?”

“Yep!”

"Doll." You say, testing the name out for yourself. Your mind floods with images of the porcelain dolls your grandmother had given you for your tenth birthday. You'd cut their hair and drawn on their faces in sharpie. "Doll." You say again, firmer this time.

The name tastes sour on your tongue- or maybe that's just the aftertaste of the chocolate Johnny had given you.

Out of the corner of your eye you can see the porcelain dolls with sloppy shaved heads and x's over their eyes. They're laughing at you.

Fuck you're really losing your mind down here.

"Doll," you say one last time.

This time it sounds real, like a name. _Your_ name. A silly thought strikes you and you let out a breathless little laugh, looking up at Johnny.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Johnny," you say, stifling giggles. Everything was so absurd, how had your life come to this? How could you not laugh at it? "My name's Doll."

Johnny grinned wildly and stuck his hand out at you, and you shook it.

“Nice to meet you too! Call me Nny!”

“Knee?”

“Nope! But it’s pronounced the same!”

The added absurdity of his giddy expression and strangely worded sentences broke you, and you laughed, hard. Johnny—no, Nny, started laughing with you. Your cheeks were red and sore by the time you stopped, and for the first time since you’d gotten here, it was a welcome pain.

Even while you were laughing, your tongue was miming the shape of the word.

_Doll, Doll, Doll._

That's all you were, a toy for someone elses amusement. How _funny_ that you liked your name more now than you did when you were free? Of course, it would help to be able to remember your old name so you could compare the two. But if you'd remembered your old name, you wouldn't be Doll. And frankly, you were quickly growing fond of your new name.

Faintly, you recall a passage from a book you don't quite remember the title of.

_She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita._

It felt special, to be given a new name. It was... oddly tender.

You decided you liked the new name Nny had given you. It made you happy. It made _him_ happy, and him being happy made you happy. You liked your name, and you liked laughing about it with him.

You decided you liked him, as strange as it was. You couldn’t bring yourself to care much about the life or the people you’d left behind, or about the fact that Nny was the reason you didn’t a choice about...well anything. Nny made you laugh, and that was what mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Johnny C 🤝 Humbert Humbert  
> Really fucked up  
> love stories and also  
> killing people


	4. Killing Spree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit gets real.

Johnny shut the door behind him as he came upstairs. He was in much higher spirits today than he normally was. Maybe it was because of the look on Doll's face when he brought them a lukewarm breakfast burrito from the 8-12. Maybe it was because of Doll's _hilarious_ story about trying to join the field hockey team in middle school only to end up banning field hockey for the entire school district. Maybe it was the simple fact that he'd spent the whole morning with Doll, lovely Doll.

It was nearing on two months since he'd brought Doll home, and he was growing more and more accustomed to their presence in his life. He enjoyed spending time with Doll, they really made that gross little basement room feel cozy!

"You're in a good mood! That's nice to see." Nailbunny said.

“I’ve actually been enjoying a minuscule amount of my time on this rotten world for once! So yes, a good mood.”

“It’s because of them, right? The one in the room on the 3rd floor?”

“Their name is Doll.” Said Johnny, proudly. He was proud, he was proud that they were so happy with the name he’d given them. It was like a little present from him to them.

Nailbunny’s voice echoed through his head, breaking his train of thought.

“Do you ever wonder what they’d do if they had a choice? If they weren’t chained to the wall?”

Huh. It had never crossed his mind what _you_ want. You'd said it yourself, you didn't have a choice! But if you did... Would you stay?

Would you continue to be Lovely Doll, sleeping and eating and existing in a 12 by 12 prison cell in Johnny's basement? Or would you run, run for your life, run home to the woman who was handing out fliers with your face plastered all over them?

The thought made Johnny sick, and angry, and worst of all _sad._

Johnny didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to even consider the vague possibility that he’d ever have to give you up.

“It doesn’t matter, they’re staying.”

“Doesn’t it seem strange though? You torture the guests you hate. You destroy them bit by bit until you eventually kill them. But you don’t hate them, and you don’t want to kill them. Do you plan on destroying them too?”

“No. No, I’m keeping them. I’ve made up my mind about it.”

“This isn’t ok, Nny.”

“SHUT UP! IT DOESN’T MATTER! IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK! THEY SMILED, AND LAUGHED WITH ME! THEY’RE HAPPIER NOW THAN BEFORE!”

“Are you sure about that?”

“They smiled—a real smile too. They were happy. I gave Doll their name and it made them happy. They never smiled before...so they must be happier now.”

He hadn't even realized it until he said it. He made Doll happy. He made Doll _happy_. _He_ made Doll happy. He had never seen you smile before but he made you giggle and grin like like a fucking schoolgirl! Even though you were chained to a wall, in a psycho's basement, listening to other people die all day.

In spite of everything, Nny had made you smile for (what he thought might be) the first time in your entire miserable life.

So it was fine that he kidnapped you! It was fine that you were stuck here for the foreseeable future because it was for your own good! You were happy here, and Nny was proud to take credit for that.

Nny practically skipped out the door that afternoon. Tonight he could pridefully make the world better in two ways, both by making an enjoyable person happy, and by eliminating a chunk of those who would counter those efforts. The orange glow of the setting sun glinted off the blade hanging from his hand as he tucked it into his pocket. The pleasant smell of a cool summer night filled his lungs.

Tonight was going to be fun.

As Johnny headed out the door, you laid on your side on your blanket. You were bored. Exhausted and bored. This morning had been _delightful_ Nny brought you food _and_ stayed and talked to you for a solid two hours afterwards. But now, without Nny to keep you company, and the greasy breakfast burrito he bought you sliding around in your shrunken stomach making you feel ill, there was nothing you could do but lay on the floor and wait for sleep, Nny, or death.

You listened to the commotion of the floor below you. You assumed that Nny must have put up some truly awful torture device for the poor man downstairs- the noises he was making were disturbing.

What disturbed you even more however was the sudden silence. It wasn't like he had died, no you were familiar with the sound of people dying in this house. When Nny was away, if someone died it was usually a slow fade. You could hear their soul slip out of their body, little by little as their cries grew softer and softer into silence.

This was too abrupt for that.

The silence was followed by a great clattering below you. You would have jumped if you had the energy to do so. You hear a victory cry from below you. Oh. That... can't be good.

Hundreds of bad outcomes raced through your mind. You tried to cower in the corner of the room, but considering that you’d barely stood up once in the months you’d been there, you only succeeded in dragging yourself a couple inches to the side.

Then the footsteps started. They were accompanied by the occasional whoop or holler, and the angry screams of some of Nny’s other victims. The footsteps got louder, coming up from below and getting closer and closer to your room.

And then they stopped.

You lifted your head slightly, peeking out from behind the greasy hair that fell over your face. You looked out the tiny window on the door, and were met with a pair of unfamiliar eyes. They weren’t Nny’s eyes, so you hated them.

The door swung open, and the eyes’ owner came into your blurry view. He was stocky, square-jawed, and wore a greasy tank top with arm holes the size of pillows. You could smell the BO and blood the moment he stepped into the room.

“Shit, you’re pretty. You should come with me, I’m escaping.”

"Honestly, sir, I would prefer not to." You say, but your voice is so weak and strained that you sounded like you had stage fright. Maybe you did- maybe you had conditioned yourself to only feel comfortable talking to Nny.

"Oh, man. He's stockholmed you huh. God you're way too gorgeous to be left to rot somewhere like this, I'm getting you out of here." Christ on a cracker it was like he hadn't even heard you!

"And how do you intend on doing that?" You wiggle your chained wrists at him. Your last energy reserves were being spent on sass, and when this guy got the fuck out of here you had a feeling that Nny would think your comeback was very funny.

"Wait here," the guy says, and turns tail bolting down the hall.

"Well I wasn't exactly planning on going anywhere!" You call after him. God this guy is dumb! You kinda get why Nny thought he deserved to be tortured to death.

You hear more clattering below you and then Mr. Greasy Bad Listener Man (you're too tired to come up with a funny name to call him) is back, with a large hunk of sharp, angular scrap metal.

"Hold still!" He says, then grabs you by the wrist and begins hacking away at the chains connected to your wrist.

If your legs and voice worked better, you would have shrieked and pulled away. You didn’t like this gross smelly man being so close, especially not when he had a sharp thing.

But you were tired, and weak, and malnourished, so you just made a disgusted face and whimpered. The man didn’t react, just kept hacking away at the rusty chain. When it finally broke he wrapped one of his sticky arms around your back and snuck the other under your knees. He picked you up and took off running, out of the room and down the hall.

You struggled in his grip as best you could, leaning away from the gross feeling of him touching you, and the nauseating stink he emitted. He didn’t seem to notice, just kept running despite your protests.

“I’m Seth, by the way! What’s your name? I wanna know what I’m gonna be screaming later...!”

You felt like throwing up, and you didn’t respond. You didn’t want him to know your name. You were called Doll, but only Nny called you that. You didn’t want this smelly uncomfortable lump to say it.

"Put me down!" You say, but your voice shakes like you're crying. Fuck, you might be crying! God you wish Nny had stayed with you for just another half an hour.

You hadn't seen the upstairs before, when Nny first brought you home you were unconscious so you missed the grand tour. Maybe now that you were... _friends_... he would show you around! You felt like you were violating his trust by being up here without him.

You gasped sharply. This mother fucker was grabbing a handful of your ass!

"Put me down!" You cry again. You just want to go back downstairs and lay on the floor until Nny comes home.

Seth didn’t put you down. If anything, he sped up. When you got to the living room, Seth was squeezing you tight enough to bruise, and he laughed with glee as he flung the front door open. You panicked, because the front door meant outside, and outside meant no more Nny. So you did the only thing you could think of.

You moved your face to his sweaty arm and bit down _hard_. You tasted blood and salt, and he screamed and dropped you. You fell on the floor with a hard “thump” but before you could even consider trying to stand up, you felt a foot collide with your stomach.

“What the hell you crazy bitch?! I’m trying to rescue you from that fucking psycho, how dare you?!”

You coughed hard, seeing specks of blood fly from your mouth. You were so weak, it was likely that Seth's single kick to your abdomen had broken one of your lower ribs.

"Fuck you! Creepy motherfuck!" You shouted, and spit out more blood. Oh Christ everything hurt. You hoped Nny was nearby.

"Oh I get it. You're fucking that psycho! This is all a weird sex thing for you two freaks, huh? Lets see how you like it when you're the one getting fuckin' tortured!" With that, he grabbed you by the hair and tanked you back across the house.

On your way through, your gaze catches on a dead bunny nailed to the wall. You could have sworn the things eyes followed you across the room. You squirmed and thrashed to the best of your ability but Seth was much bigger than you, and probably much less malnourished.

Seth tossed you against the wall, his muscular frame picking up and throwing your bony one with ease. Your head hit the wall, then the floor, and then your vision started to swim. You tasted blood, and you were close to losing the burrito Nny had given you earlier.

Another kick to the stomach, Seth practically stomped on it with his industrial combat boots. You started to black out, thinking you’d finally die here, not by Nny’s hands, but by this random asshole.

You’d almost given up entirely when you heard a wet slicing noise, and saw Seth’s severed head fall to the floor.

And then the world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How that for a cliffhanger?


	5. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waking up isn’t always quite as painful as you might think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for some mother fucking fluff up in this bitch!

You woke up colder than normal, and when your vision cleared and your head stopped pounding enough to see, you realized it was because you were in a bathtub full of water. Cold water. You normally hated being cold, but you have to admit that just this once, it felt nice on the bruises.

You looked around you. There was a pile of various bladed weapons in the corner of the room, the door was ajar and there were bloodstains on the tile of the bathroom floor and the carpet directly outside.

But most importantly, Nny was there, hunched over, sitting on the floor with a worried look on his face.

"You look like you've had a really shitty day," you joke, punctuating the sentence with a horribly painful coughing fit. Nny snapped to attention.

"Doll!" He exclaimed, like even he was surprised to see you still kicking. In his own defense, he had much more experience taking people apart than he did putting them back together.

"Hey, Nny. I missed you. You should stay home more, and also put better locks on the doors." It slipped your mind entirely that you had referred to this place as home, but Nny picked up on it instantly and let that information sit and fester at the back of his mind the whole rest of the week. Your head lolled from the side to looking straight down at yourself. "Ah! I'm naked. Been a minute since I've seen that!" You joked, still very delirious.

Nny however, didn’t seem to see the humor in it. He squeaked and turned away. He remained actively-not-looking-at-you even when he rifled through a large canvas bag and pulled out a bottle of rubbing alcohol and bandages. He looked at your face, glanced at your bloody, bruised, and naked body, then tipped the rubbing alcohol over into the bathwater. You weren’t sure if that would be helpful, but you didn’t know enough about alcohol dilution or medical science to say.

“You’re lucky that piece of shit was as stupid as he looked. He didn’t hit any major organs or anything.”

"Sure did hurt though." You muse, and let your eyes flutter closed. Nny carefully lifts one of your arms out of the cool water and begins wrapping bandages around the scraped parts. The feeling of being cared for so tenderly is... unfamiliar.

Not just from Nny, but in general. In your exhausted haze you recall a moment from your childhood, when you had rolled down a hill and gotten a sharp stick stuck in the meat of your shin. You hobbled home and wailed for your mother to help you. You collapsed dramatically on the dirt in front of your porch. From your spot on the ground you could see your mother in her office, and you could see her close the window and draw the curtains, ignoring you completely.

You'd had to pull the stick out yourself, hiccuping and sobbing the whole time. It left you with a nasty scar, one that (ironically) looked like a knot in a tree. You wonder passively if Nny noticed the scar when he was undressing you, or if it just blended in with the rest of your injuries.

You realized in that moment that this is the first time Nny has touched you. He’s been near you, of course, but you’ve never seen him touch anyone outside of a murder setting. His hands were calloused and scarred, and his fingernails dug into your skin when he manhandled your arm around to bandage it.

He felt warm. It was comforting. Even with his clumsy movements and the way he occasionally pulled the bandage too tight, it was nice to be taken care of. To be cared for.

You hoped he would touch you more often. The implications of that thought failed to reach you, you were so sleepy, so comfortable just letting him move you as he pleased. You were pretty sure you were gonna fall asleep again.

But you wanted to stave it off a little longer- you wanted to experience this unfamiliar intimacy as long as you possibly could. So you started talking, even though your throat ached.

"So what did you bring that guy here for in the first place? I mean, obviously he was a totall jackoff but what did he do to make you wanna kill him?"

“He slapped a waitress’ ass. Ruined her day, mine too. Sick fuck, just a slave to his own lustful meat body.”

“Yeesh.”

“Yeesh is right!”

Nny looked over your now fully bandaged arms. He mumbled something to you, too soft to hear.

“What?”

“I said I have something for you, in your room. I got you a present.”

You looked at him in surprise, then tiredly smiled at him with the remainder of your strength.

“Thank you, Nny. I appreciate it.”

“You don’t even know what ‘it’ is!”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s from you.”

Unintentionally flustering Nny was probably the highlight of your day. He didn't respond to your comment, but his wide eyes and rapid breathing said enough. He shoved his arm into the water and pulled up the drain plug.

Your eyes slid shut again, as you focused on the feeling of the cold water receeding. Nny struggled to wrap you up in a towell. You did your best to help him out but you felt like your bones were made out of noodles.

"Makes sense that that prick slapped a waitresses ass. He grabbed mine while he was tryna' drag me outta the house," you slur, words blending together as your exhaustion takes hold of you.

He sucked in a breath, hand tightening around your arm over the towel. He started leading you out of the room, pausing occasionally when you nearly tripped or started wobbling too hard on your weakened legs. After a great deal of effort on your part, you felt yourself fall back onto the mat in your room.

Nny walked over to the corner of the room and picked up a pile of fabric. When he dropped it on your lap you could see that it was a thick comforter, a large long-sleeved shirt, and a soft pair of sweatpants.

“So...so you don’t have to be cold anymore.”

Your smile was so wide it made the bruises on your face ache.

"Oh, Nny! Thank you." Your eyes are watering again, and you try to force back the tears. You are NOT about to cry in front of him. Especially not over some sweats and a blanket.

You do your best to put on the shirt and pants, then stretch all your limbs to admire how the baggy clothes hang off your body.

He wrings his hands together, seeming uncomfortable having nothing in them. He picked up the comforter and dropped it over your shoulders like a cloak, effectively engulfing you in soft fluffy fabric and an unfamiliar soapy smell.

“Do you mind if I ask, where did you get this? Microplush doesn’t exactly strike me as your style.”

Nny grinned, showing off his slightly crooked teeth.

“I stole it from next door! There’s this kid who lives there, Squee, who’s pretty cool. His dad sucks though, so I took his blanket.”

You laugh a little. Of course he stole it! That was your Nny, always causing trouble.

"I think I'm gonna pass out any second here but... this is the best present I've ever gotten, Nny."

"That's kind of sad."

"Nah, can't be sad if it made me this happy. Tell Squee I said thanks for having a shitty dad with a good blanket."

Nny burst out laughing. You smiled, it was nice to hear him laugh.

“I’ll thank him for the bandages too while I’m at it. His mom’s medicine cabinet has been keeping me tetanus-free since they moved here!”

You smiled, and Nny smiled too. It made you happy, and after all, that’s what mattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Who the fuck took all my antiseptics?”  
> \- Squee’s Mom


	6. Evicted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your roommate finds some disturbing information, and acts accordingly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Devi for the win

Devi stood over the printer and watched it spit out copy after copy of her roommate's face. Could she still technically consider you a roommate if you had been missing for the last two months? It didn't matter. You were her friend, and she'd be damned if she gave up on searching for you.

There was one thing that Devi felt was a little... _off_ about the posters she was printing out. Not a single one of them had your name written anywhere on them. She'd considered writing it down herself but she stopped once she realized she didn't know which name to write.

At the coffee shop down the block, you were Casey. At the record store you frequented, you were Rhiannon. At home, in your appartment with Devi, you were Buddy.

Devi had never realized until now that she didn't actually know your name. When she met up with your mother to put up the posters, she would ask. And she would also ask why your name isn't on the posters in the first place, since your mother was the one who designed them.

Devi sent a message to the woman who’d introduced herself as your mother. She told her that she’s printing out posters, and would be putting them up the next morning if she’d like to join.

She hit send, and leaned back in her desk chair. She thought about the names you’d given people as she knew you. Alex, Cameron, Lucifer on one particularly memorable occasion. You’d never introduced yourself properly either, you’d just asked her to call you Buddy “since we’re friends now, right?”

A small ding from her phone pulled Devi out of her thoughts. Her eyes widened as she looked at the alert on her screen.

“Local Missing Person Spotted In Doorway of 777 Cellblock Lane”

Devi knew that address. She knew exactly where it was and exactly who lived there. She felt sick, like she was gonna puke all over the stack of posters she was holding.

You were with Johnny. Johnny tried to kill her. Johnny was going to kill you, if he hadn't already.

She dialed your mothers number, her hands shaking so hard it took her three tries to get it right. As soon as your mother picked up the phone, Devi announced, "someone saw them." She tried to steady her breathing for a moment. "Someone saw them in a house on Cellblock Lane."

Your mother insisted she’d be there as quickly as she could, and Devi assured her she’d be there too, but insisted she wait until they were together to go in. The last thing Devi wanted was more collateral damage, but if you were still alive she was determined to get you out.

“Oh holy fuck.” She thought. “Why are all my exes so shitty.”

When Devi arrived, she saw your mother sitting motionless in her car, like she was a still image. She knocked on the window of the car and your mother snapped out of her daze, unlocking the door and letting Devi inside.

"What are we gonna do? I thought there might be police out here watching or *something* but it's like the whole city just forgot my poor baby is gone!"

"We have to wait until the guy who lives there leaves, so we can go rescue them. I've... met the man who lives there and he probably wouldn't just let us in if we knocked."

Your mother saw Devi’s face for the first time. She saw a hardened, angry, storm of a woman who carried a crowbar and just so happened to have “met” the man who’d kidnapped and possibly murdered you. This was _not_ the kind of violence she was used to.

“We’ll wait until he leaves, then we’ll break in, find them, and get out. We cannot draw any more attention to ourselves.”

It was hours before Nny left the house, nearly sunset in fact. When the door of 777 swung open, Devi sunk low in her seat, so low in fact that she ended up just sitting on the floor of the car. Your mother simply tried to make herself look busy, like she wasn't watching this skinny young man like a hawk.

"He's gone," your mother said to Devi, and helped her clamber back up into her seat.

"Then let's go." Devi threw caution to the wind, she wasn't goint to wait a couple extra minutes to make sure Johnny was really gone- not if those minutes could end up costing you your life.

The door was locked. Since when did Johnny have _l_ _ocks_? Not that it mattered to Devi, she had brought that crowbar for a reason. The half-rotten wood of the door splintered when she pried it open, and the mushy floor compressed under her boots as she walked in.

“It’s just as fucking awful as I remember...” she lamented.

The pair of women stormed through the grimy house, Devi occasionally smashing objects or prying doors open. One floor down and they hadn’t found you. Two floors down and they were wondering how far deep the rabbit hole went. Three floors down and they saw you through another locked door, sound asleep in a cell.

The cell was clean, and that struck Devi as odd. The rest of the house was filthy, bloodstains and bugs littering the decor. She’d even seen a literal crate of nails in the living room. But here you were, sleeping softly on a clean mattress, in a room with clean walls, wrapped in a clean blanket that still had a visible pattern.

But for as strange as all that was, what scared her was your face. You were so much skinnier than when she’d seen you last, your cheekbones poking out and eyes looking sunken and dark. But the most terrifying thing about the image before her, was that even in your sleep, you were _smiling_.

"Buddy?" She called out to you. She almost didn't want to believe it was you. You didn't stir at her call, so she tried again.

"Honey, it's mommy! Wake up for mommy okay?" Your mother shouted, when Devi's calls didn't rouse you.

You quickly blinked awake at the sound of yout mothers voice, smile falling from your face like ice cream dripping off a melting cone.

"Mom? Devi? What are you guys doing here?" You asked, your typical grogginess masked by sudden terror. They shouldn't be in here. Where was Nny? Did he let them in? No. Devi's holding a fucking crowbar. Oh God, did they hurt Nny? You clutched the blanket and pulled it close to your chest, scooting back up against the wall.

The look of pure fear on your face made Devi all the more determined to get you the hell out of here. She made quick work of breaking open the door.

"Come on Buddy, I don't know how much time we have, we gotta go _now_." She said and held out her hand. But... you didn't take it. You remained curled up against the wall, hands tucked away in your balnket, while you gave Devi the most _heartbreaking_ look she'd ever seen.

“Wh...where’s Nny? Why’s mom here? Why do you have that crowbar? Did you hurt him?!”

“No, he’s not here, he left. We’re here to get you out, now cmon open the door, I don’t know how much time we have.”

You curled up in a ball and shook your head. The blanket fell off of your shoulders, revealing the malnourished frame you were now sporting. Devi felt sick, and started rattling the door handle. When that didn’t work, she tried prying it open and kicking it.

Your mother on the other hand just hit the door with her fist, banging on the metal as hard as she could.

You remembered hearing the same noise when you’d accidentally broken the remote control and she’d locked you in the closet. You’d hit the door all night but you couldn’t get out.

You started crying.

It was all so much so fast. It was worse than when Seth tried to take you- Seth you didn't know, you didn't feel bad when Nny killed him because _he deserved it._ But if something like that happened to Devi, you would never forgive yourself.

Your mother however was a different story. She scared you more than Nny ever would. You don't even know how she and Devi got in contact with one another but you want to scream at Devi for leading her to you.

It's all so overwhelming that your tears turn into sobs, and your sobs turn into hyperventilation. Your lungs are constricting painfully and your body is still so weak from Seth's attack and your constant malnourishment.

When Devi finally managed to break open the door, you felt like you were going to die right there on your mattress.

By that point the tears has devolved into sobbing, with the occasional “no, no, no” in between chokes hiccups. Devi put her hand on your shoulder and winced at how bony it was, but you leaned into the touch. She gently pulled you to your feet, supporting you as you stumbled. Your mother on the other hand, grabbed your upper arm and dragged you towards the door, despite your shaking knees buckling every other step.

It was too much, too fast, and you screamed louder than you’d ever screamed before in your life.

Your mother clamped her hand down on your mouth, but no matter how hard you tried to bite at the skin of her palm, she didn't budge.

She and Devi half carried half pushed you up the stairs and out of the house. By the time you reached the living room your knees had buckled completely and you'd gone limp in Devi and your mothers arms, tears still streaking down your face.

They carried you out to the car and laid you down in the backseat. You choked on your own sobs and stared up at the roof of the car. Devi was talking, her tone was comforting but you couldn't process what she was saying.

"I wanna go home. I wanna go home." You repeated breathlessly, hiccups interrupting every ither word.

"We're taking you home, Buddy. Everything's okay now." Devi said, not knowing that the home you were referring to was the decrepit one you had just been forcibly removed from.

You wrapped your arms around your body, already missing the warmth of the soft blanket your Nny had given you. You shivered and whimpered, lying in the backseat and wishing you were with Nny. All you could do was cry your eyes out, whispering “home” and “please” in a feeble attempt to convince the women in the front of the car to take you back.

But they didn’t. They just kept driving down the road, Devi trying to tell you that they _were_ taking you home, that you didn’t have to worry anymore. It didn’t help, and the final word you spoke before passing out from dehydration and stress was “Nny”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Devi is best girl, 10/10


	7. Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You can’t escape from your problems for long. (Un)Fortunately, you also can’t escape Nny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You did warn him that he should stay home more often.

He’d only been gone for an hour. He’d been gone for 60-goddamn-minutes and already, everything had gone to shit. Half the doors in his house were broken, his Happy Noodle Boy figurine was smashed, and worst of all, his Doll was missing.

He should have known to stay home. He should have known not to leave them alone after what happened last time, he should have known some new abomination would try to steal them away from him. He should have expected these exact events, and to some extent, he did.

What he didn’t expect, was the familiar flash of purple pigtails in the car that turned the corner and sped away once he’d stepped onto his block.

It struck him as very odd that Devi was in his neighborhood considering past events, but it didn't really bither him until he had gotten to his house and spotted the rotting wood door hanging wide open, letting the whole world peer into his living room.

He didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to even acknowledge that Doll was gone. Was this some kind of sick joke from Devi? Was she taking away the one good thing that ever happened to him in some sort of fucked up act of retribution?

Or... even worse, did you leave voluntarily? When Seth tried to take you, you wouldn't go down without a fight. That made Johnny immeasurably proud. But it didn't look like you had struggled very much here.

Unless... he had seen Devi in the passenger seat. That meant there was another person with her! Of course! You would never leave him of your own valition, you just weren't strong enough to fight back against two people at once. But who else would want to take you from him? The only image his mind could supply him was the woman fron the 8-12, who had given him the flyer.

"Nail bunny, who took my Doll?!" He shouted frntically.

"I think you already know, Nny. Maybe you should let them go, let them be free with their family."

“I AM their family now. I’m getting them back. Fuck, where’d she take them? How’d she even know they were here? Why does she care so much?!”

“Getting hysterical won’t help you or them.”

“Right, fuck...I need to track them down. Think, Nny, think. If you were an art girl who wanted to re-kidnap someone and hide them, where would you go?”

“I would go home.” Said Nailbunny.

“Good thinking, dead rabbit! She might have Doll at home with her, and even if she doesn’t it’s a good starting place. Now...how do we do this?”

Johnny wasted no time in putting together a sloppy plan to get you back. It was a relatively simple plan.

Step 1. Find Devi. If you're there, take you home, if not proceed to step 2.

Step 2. Beg/threaten Devi until she reveals your location.

Step 3. Go there and then take you home.

He left his house determined, angry, and ready to kidnap you for the second time. The plan was so simple, there was no way he could fuck it up!

....He fucked it up.

Immediately upon entering (breaking into) Devi's house, she threw a dinner plate at him, it shattered on impact leaving a wicked pain in Johnny's head.

“Get the FUCK out of my house. God, what’s wrong with you?! First you try to kill me, then you kidnap my roommate for...what? To get my attention or something? Well guess what, dick? You’ve got my attention, and I’m giving you 10 seconds to explain why I shouldn’t just shove you out the window here and now.”

Johnny cocked his head to side, confused.

“You know Doll?”

"Don't you fucking call them 'doll' you weirdo, they have a name!"

Johnny chose to ignore Devi's comment (of _course_ you have a name, you name is Doll) and repeat his earlier question.

"How do you know Doll?"

"Buddy is my fucking roommate, don't act like you dont know!"

"They never mentioned you." Johnny said, then flinched to dodge another plate being launched at him.

Devi continued her onlaught of throwing things at Nny while she yelled at him.

“You _kidnapped_ them! Of course they didn’t fucking tell you their life story! You should have seen them when we got them out, they were terrified! They’re skin and bones, and they’re covered in bruises! What the hell did you do to them?!”

"That wasn't me!" He shouted, ducking behind her dining table. "This _asshole_ tried to force them out of the house. Kind of like what you and Mommy Dearest did! They fought back and got their ass kicked, but I got home in time to save them. I should be a god damn superhero!"

Devi grabbed hold of the table and yanked it away, sending it careening into the wall and leaving Johnny completely exposed.

"Wow, I forgot how strong you are." Johnny commented.

"Then why the _fuck_ do they look like a walking skeleton? You really wanna tell me that's not your fault?"

Now _that_ made Johnny pause. They were skinny, but so was he. He hadn’t really noticed wether or not they were getting skinnier, and with the baggy clothes he’d given them it was tough to tell anyway. He wanted to deny it, because he would _never_ hurt his Doll! Not anymore, anyway.

But Devi was right. He hadn’t been feeding them. He’d been forgetting, sometimes for whole days or more. He blinked away the tears he hadn’t noticed were building in his eyes.

“I...I—I didn’t...it was an accident...!”

Devi hesitated, but only for a split second. She launched a particularly sturdy bowl at Johnny's face and the force of the throw knocked him on his ass.

"You're not getting them back Johnny. Their family is gonna take them somewhere far away from here."

"No, no, no this isn't happening," Johnny began rocking back and forth, trying to steady himself. The thought of you, sad and alone somewhere he couldn't reach you made him want to scream. So he did. He let out a painful wail and yanked at his own hair and stomped on the floor.

Devi felt... conflicted, to say the least. She wanted you to be safe above all else, but she also wanted to believe that Johnny was a good person who _didn't_ try to kill the women he goes out with. And you seemed so scared when you were leaving the house, but not at all while you were asleep. It confused her, every part of the situation was covered in red flags, but seeing Johnny cry like a child on her kitchen floor made her feel oddly guilty.

Johnny sat up, watering eyes boring into Devi’s resolve. He looked like a kicked puppy, but she’d be damned if she let him win.

“Devi please, I wanna see them...”

“No. They’re with their mom, where they’re SAFE. Where you don’t get to lock them up and starve them.”

Johnny looked pitiful. Absolutely defeated, miserable, like he’d dropped an ice cream cone on the sidewalk in summer. He was crying, silently, slumped on the kitchen floor.

“Please...You don't understand, Devi. Doll _needs me._ I'm the only thing that makes them happy!"

Hearing that made Devi feel all sorts of upset.

"There are a lot of things that make Buddy happy, you self righteous prick! Like coffee with too much sugar and shitty old movies! They were perfectly happy with their life before you fucking kidnapped them!"

"When's the last time you saw them smile?" The change in Johnny's tone gave Devi whiplash- he had gone from manic and pleading to Therapist Voice in 30 seconds. In all honesty? She didn't see you looking happy very much. Your smiles were rare, but you never seemed to be in a particularly _bad_ mood. You were just... a very private person.

But, even when they were out together, when Tenna dragged them all out to some random restaurant or movie, you didn’t smile. You just...existed. You were there, at least physically, but you never seemed to enjoy anything. Devi realized, in a way that hit her like a brick to the face, that the only times in their entire friendship that you had smiled were when you moved out of your mom’s house...and when you were asleep on Nny’s floor.

Devi stopped, dropping the book she’d intended to lob at Johnny’s head. He picked up on her change in mood, poking his head up from behind the table.

“You know I’m right! You know they weren’t happy before! I made them smile! I make them happy!”

"Buddy is a complicated person, you don't get to take credit for their emotions!" She snapped back, but she couldn't help but wonder if Johnny was right. She thought about how absolutely terrified you looked in the car, how you kept begging to go home.

Something there wasn't adding up. You were begging to go home, the only time she'd seen you smile was when you were _l_ _eaving home_ for the first time, your mother was... alarmingly rough with her fragile, malnourished, traumatized child. All of these facts swirled around in her head. She was so close to understanding but there were still pieces missing.

And the only person who could give her those missing pieces was you. If she wanted to understand she was going to have to go to you.

Devi picked up the brick she’d been using as a bookend and pointed it at Johnny.

“Sit on the couch, and stay there. If you move one inch I will break your skull with this thing.”

Nny nodded and did as told, glad to at least have gotten through to Devi a bit. Devi walked out of the room, and went looking for you and your mom in your room.

You were sitting on your bed with a sad expression, while your mom berated you for...well a lot of things. Moving out, knowing a crazy man, staying with Devi (who she deemed untrustworthy), basically blaming you for anything and everything that had gone wrong.

You didn’t cry, or scream, or anything. You were tired, so incredibly tired, and so lonely. You missed Nny. You wished he was here instead of this woman. You wanted her to shut up and leave, so you did the only thing that had ever worked in the past.

“I know, mom. I’m sorry.”

"Sorry isn't going to cut it! Do you have any idea what you've put me through? Do you have any idea how much time I've wasted looking for you?!"

You just leaned up against the wall, pressing your face into the peeling wallpaper. You closed your eyes and focused on how _warm_ your room was. It was frankly very uncomfortable. After nearly 3 months, you supposed you had gotten used to the cold.

"I'm sorry mama. I really am." You could say it a million times and she would never believe you. But you didn't need her to believe you, you needed her to stop talking.

Before your mother could say anything, Devi opened up the door to your room.

“We have a situation. Nny followed us.”

You lit up, eyes sparkling, a hint of that terrifyingly sweet smile ghosting over your lips.

“He’s here? Nny is? For real? Can I see him? I miss him...”

Devi was shocked. She’d suspected coming in that you weren’t in the healthiest state of mind, but this? The unadulterated joy you radiated the instant you heard Nny’s name scared her. But before you could continue, your mom cut you off.

“Don’t be stupid. You’ve wasted enough time on this little ‘independence’ experiment. You’ve barely been gone for long and look how bad it got. You need to come home, to mama.”

“What? But...but I wanna go home to Nny...”

"Buddy," Devi started softly. "That's not your home. Your home is here," she gave your mother a pointed look, she was quickly growing to detest this woman.

You gave her a sad look, like you were looking down at a child who didn't understand something.

"You don't understand, Devi." That sentence sent chills up her spine. That was _exactly_ what Johnny had said to her just minutes ago. "Please let me see him, I miss him so much."

"For fucks sake!" Your mother snapped, standing up from her spot at the foot of your bed. "You're an adult. Act like it. This freak kidnapped you and you're acting like a child with a missing stuffed animal. Get your act together and let's go home. "

You reacted exactly how she’d said, like a child. You wrapped Devi’s comforter around your body and lied down on your side, quiet tears dripping down your face.

“He—he’s not a freak. He’s nice to me...I like talking to him...’n I like his laugh. He’s funny ‘n interesting...I wanna go home...”

Your mother seemed like she was about to blow up, but Devi shooed her out of the room before she could. Devi closed the door and put her hand on your back through the blanket in a comforting manner.

“Buddy, cmon. You gotta see how fucked up this is right? I’m not gonna make you go back to your mom’s place, but you really need to get out of that house. Look at yourself, you’re starving!”

"I'm not! I'm fine, Devi I promise! I barely even get hungry anymore." You use the blanket to wipe up your tears, but it's a fruitless endeavor since they just keep coming. "Please Devi, if he's here I want to see him."

Devi didn't respond. On the one hand, letting you see Johnny would probably ruin any shot they had at breaking you out of your obvious Stockholm syndrome. On the other hand, she had a feeling that Johnny would find a way to get to you regardless of what she did to try to prevent it.

Devi worked through her options, and figured that calming you down and getting some answers would be the best course of action. She kept her hand on your back and shushed you, waiting until the tears stopped. Once you’d gone quiet, she tried to be as gentle as possible with the questions.

“Hey, try thinking about something else. Literally fucking anything other than Nny. Why don’t you...uh...tell me what’s up with your mom? She seems...unique.”

"If I never saw that woman again for the rest of my life I could die happy." You say sharply, the pure vitriol in your voice startling Devi. "I thought I had finally gotten away from her. I thought I was finally safe." It was incredibly alarming that you made it sound like your mother was the one who had kidnapped you.

That was how she had hoped you would talk about Johnny. But instead, you talked about him like he was every star in the god damned sky! It was pretty ass backwards in Devi's opinion.

"So, I can assume you guys aren't really close then?"

You made a noise, Devi couldn't tell if it was a scoff or a laugh.

"We've never been close. She'd be perfectly happy if I died right here, right now. She'd take one look at me and say that my corpse stinks, then she'd leave and never think about me again."

Devi wondered to herself if this might be why you were so attached to Johnny, despite everything that he’d done. She prayed to every star in every sky, to whatever fucked-up god allowed this world to exist, and begged that Nny wouldn’t overhear this new information about the woman sharing a couch with him.

But judging by the crashing noise that followed immediately after Buddy had finished talking, her prayers went unheard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Devi just broke like half a dozen plates on Nny’s head alone.


	8. Soul Food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Devi plays peacemaker, Nny isn’t thrilled.

Devi shot up off the bed, and ran to go stop whatever commotion was happening in the living room. You tried to pull yourself out of bed to follow her, but only succeeded in getting tangled up in your blanket and throwing yourself on the floor.

"For fucks sake Nny!" Devi yelled. Johnny had a shard of porcelain in his hand (likely from one of the plates Devi had thrown at him) and it was just about to make contact with your mother's throat.

Devi grabbed his wrist and wrestled the shard out of his hand, struggling, but successful in keeping him still. She was prepared for him to lunge at your mother, or her, or for him to pull a knife out of seemingly thin air. What she wasn’t prepared for was when you yelped in pain from falling off the bed, and he bolted after you.

By the time Devi had processed what happened, and followed Nny into the room, he already had you sitting on your knees, still wrapped in the blanket, with your face in his hands. It disgusted her, to see his long fingers and jagged nails cupping your glowing, _smiling_ face.

Your shaking hands were clutching Nny's sleeves like a lifeline. Johnny turned your face around in his hands, inspecting you for damages.

"I'm sorry Nny!" Is the first thing that comes out of your mouth. "I didn't wanna come here, I wanted to stay at home but-"

"Get the fuck off of them." Devi interrupts the teary reunion. Johnny turns to look at her but doesn't make any movement to let go of you.

Devi took a half step towards the two of you, and you panicked, lunging forward and locking your skinny arms around Nny’s equally skinny middle. Your shaking evolved to full body shivers, and when you buried your nose in his shirt, his arms came to wrap protectively around you as well.

You and Nny spoke at the same time, both babbling almost incoherently. Nny’s rambling mostly consisted of telling Devi that you needed him, begging her to look at how much you wanted to stay with him. Your words were less coherent, mostly being a cacophony of sobs and pleading.

Unfortunately, Devi was having none of it.

She grabbed you by the back of your shirt with one hand and yanked you away from Nny, prying his arms off of you with the other.

You whimper and try to fight back but Devi manages to shove you back onto your bed and pin Johnny to the floor with her foot. Nny was right, she really is strong.

"I don't even have words to explain how fucked up this whole situation is!" She said. Despite not having words, she would go on to yell at them for another fifteen minutes. The whole time she had to keep Nny pinned to the floor with one leg, and keep you in bed with her arms. Keeping you in bed wasn't a particularly difficult task, a strong breeze could have knocked you back down into the mattress.

The hard part was the longing looks you and Nny were giving each other the entire time.

The smile you’d gotten when you saw Nny had long since left your face after being separated from him. You couldn’t get off the bed, so you settled for sticking your hand out and grabbing hold of Nny’s. He laced his fingers with yours, calming down quickly.

“—and another thing, how the fuck did you just forget to feed them so often? If they ~need you~ so badly, why the fuck haven’t you been helping them?!”

Nny shrugged as best he could from his position on the floor. You just traced his palm with your thumb and felt nice.

You were drunk on the contact, touching Nny was new and exciting and it made your heart flutter. You had long stopped listening to Devi and were now completely zoned in on the feeling of Nny's hand in yours.

How come you only ever got to touch him after something awful happened? First it was after Seth, and now you're in your old appartment, holding Nny's hand- something you'd never gottwn the chance (or the nerve) to do at home.

It reminded you of some shitty vampire movie you had loved as a teenager- the girl would hurl herself into danger so that her hot vampire boyfriend would come rescue her. You felt kind of like that, only instead of hurling yourself into danger for attention, danger was hurling itself at you.

You write sentences in Nny's palm with the tip of your finger.

_Let's go home._

_I missed you._

_I love you, Johnny._

Nny looked like he was just as blissed-out as you. You didn’t know if he could tell what you were writing, but you hoped he could feel what it meant anyway. You kept at it, writing little words of affection on Nny’s hand, the world hazy and soft. Maybe it was from the dehydration, or maybe you were tired, or maybe it was just that being around Johnny made everything else seem so dull and fuzzy in comparison.

Either way, you were content to drift in and out of your trance while Devi’s words didn’t reach your ears. She was your friend, you thought, so she must understand that you wanted to be with Nny. She cared about you, so she wouldn’t keep him from you.

When she was finally done talking, you’d nearly fallen asleep happy.

Devi sighed loudly, and sat down on the bed, still keeping space between you and Johnny.

"I've made up my mind about all of this. I'm putting my foot down. I'm drawing a line in the fucking sand here." Devi stated, much calmer now that she had gotten all of her (righteous) anger out of her system.

"You," she pointed at you. "Will be staying here. With me. For the forseeable future. I'm gonna make sure you gain enough weight to be a functioning human being again."

Before you or Nny could protest, she spoke up again.

“I will let you see Nny, occasionally. _However_ , you will be in this apartment, only when I am home, you will not be in public, and whenever Nny comes over, I will take all weapons off of his person and hover over you with a large rock. Buddy will _not_ be going back to 777, and Johnny is _not_ permitted to be within two blocks of them unless I am by their side.”

You looked at Devi like she had just shot your dog. Your eyes were welling up with tears again, and your grip on Nny's hand was verging on painful. But, you sniffled and nodded. You would still get to see him, everything was going to turn out okay. You were so tired. Too tired to argue.

Nny however, was not at all too tired to argue!

“But they wanna come home! They need to be back home with me! Even Nailbunny is starting to miss them...”

“I’m going to ignore that last comment in favor of kicking your ass out that door and getting some goddamn nutrients and fluids into my friend. I’m taking off work for a while, so don’t even think about kidnapping them again because I’ll be here and I will throw you out the fucking window.”

Nny pouted, but nodded, giving your hand a final squeeze before Devi shoved him out the front door. You didn’t like that he was gone, but it was nice to know he’d be back.

“Now...what do we do with you? You probably can’t eat anything too rich or heavy...but a lot of fiber and roughage won’t help either. I can make toast?”

You nodded, neutral on the idea of toast but very happy with the idea of food. Devi clapped her hands together and sighed, exhausted. She helped you up out of bed, and sat you down at the kitchen table (still wrapped in her comforter). She filled a glass with water and handed it to you, then started rifling through the cabinets, presumably for bread. Your mom’s voice rang through the apartment.

“Are you cooking for them? What are you making?”

“Just toast, ma’am!”

Your mom made a shocked noise of offense and careened into the kitchen.

“Absolutely not! They’ve been hungry, they’re getting a decent meal!”

“I don’t know if they’ll be able to handle—“

“Hush up, I’m making something actually good, presuming your stove still works. You young people have lost the art of cooking, it’s a tragedy really.”

Your mother rifled through Devi's fridge, quickly whipping up perhaps the greasiest scrambled eggs either of you had ever seen. In all honesty, Devi didn't even know she HAD eggs in her fridge.

"I really don't think that's a good idea ma'am." Devi had officially decided that she did not like this woman, not even a little bit.

"Nonsense. A mother always knows what's best for her child!" She exclaimed, setting the plate of yellow slop down in front of you. Just the sight of it made you gag. "Eat." She commanded, and you were too emotionally exhausted to argue with her. So you gingerly ate a piece of scrambled egg (it was literally _dripping_ with grease. How did that even happen?) and gave your mother a strained smile.

Your mother sat across the table from you, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.

“Well? I’m waiting. Honestly, it’s just like when you were 12. It’s food, just suck it up. Chew and swallow, it’s not that difficult.”

You tried again, struggling with every step of the process. Your arms were weak, so even picking up the fork was an ordeal. The congealed mass of salt and egg on your plate tasted worse and worse as you chewed, and eventually it got too much.

You spit the bite in your mouth out, turned to Devi, and weakly gestured to the bathroom. She nodded and slung your arm over her shoulder, half-carrying you to the door.

You collapsed in front of the toilet and hacked up the few bites of food you’d been able to choke down, followed by a wave of pure stomach acid.

God, you felt like shit.

And you felt even worse when you collapsed on the bathmat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Devi: You get partial friend custody.  
> Nny: ok fine but it’s not what I wanted.


	9. The Point of No Return

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nny decides to do a little b&e.

You woke up back in your old room. Not “ _y_ _our_ room” your room, but the one Devi had in her apartment that had all your old stuff in it. She’d evidently put you back to bed after you collapsed. She’s put the comforter over you too, how sweet.

Your mouth tasted sour and acidic, and you were thankful for the glass of water someone had put on the side table next to you. It got rid of the sickening taste of...well, sick. It didn’t get rid of the sickening feeling in your gut though. You wondered if the feeling was loneliness, or lovesickness, or perhaps just a side effect of being away from Nny for so long.

But whatever, you’d been alone for longer before you’d met him, you were sure you could hold out.

It took a few minutes for your eyes to focus on... well, anything. You squinted at your alarm clock until the numbers revealed them selves. _4:07_. Was it 4:07 AM or PM? Either way it was dark out, and Devi (at least, you assumed it was Devi) was making noise in the other room.

You remembered many nights like this, waking up to hear Devi working on a particularly strenuous painting in the living room. The familiarity should have been comfortable, but it just made you lonely. You kind of missed waking up and hearing screaming.

Your half-asleep, nauseas trance was interrupted by a sharp tapping noise originating from the room’s window. A cursory glance at said window showed Nny, shoving the pane up and squeezing his gangly body through the now-open window.

Were you less ill, you would have run to Nny immediately, but the combination of your bony legs and heavy stomach made it difficult to do much more than reach your hand out to him.

His entrance was less than graceful, it was like watching a baby deer try to squeeze through your window- awkward and adorable. You were glad Devi seemed to be distracted by whatever she was doing in the other room because Nny's entrance was less than quiet.

"Nny, what are you doing here?" You asked. Nny managed to pull himself completely into your room, not bothering to shut the window behind him.

He dropped his long coat onto the floor, and flopped onto your bed, still with his boots on. The position didn’t work for him though, and he quickly scrambled into a crouching position at the end of the bed, reminding you of a cat.

“Devi said I couldn’t take you back to 777, but she never said I couldn’t visit you here!”

You sat up as best you could, and held your arms out. Nny catapulted himself into your embrace, eventually tucking his body around yours so he could fit his chin in the space between your neck and shoulder.

His hands wormed their way under the oversized shirt he’d given you, seeming content to wrap his arms around your belly and squeeze.

You would think that two people who were essentially skin and bones, all sharp angles and no soft parts, would be incredibly uncomfortable cuddling each other but no. Your body and Johnny's slotted together like puzzle pieces, all your dips and divots filling in the spaces of each others bodies.

"I'm pretty sure Devi did say you weren't supposed to visit when she wasn't around." You mumble, eyes fluttering with contentment.

"She is around! Just not watching us, like a creep." Nny replied, though his words were muffled by your skin.

“I guess you’re right. She can’t get mad at us for following the rules.”

Nny just mumbled an agreement and snuggled his nose further into your shoulder. You sighed, happily, and settled into his embrace. How nice, to be held so close again. The bliss didn’t last though, Nny’s fidgeting hands eventually poked just a bit too hard on your sensitive stomach.

“Ouch!”

Nny immediately jerked away from you.

"What happened?! What did I do?!" He asked frantically. You reached out to stroke his cheek to comfort him but it didn't seem to do much.

"Nothing, Nny! It's not your fault! My mother tried to feed me and it made me sick, my stomach still hurts... A lot." You said.

Nny’s eyes shot to the door for a split second, familiar bloodlust seeping into his gaze. You swiped your thumb over his cheek, catching his attention, and tried your best to focus your tired eyes on his wild ones.

“Don’t hurt her Nny, just stay here...please...I don’t wanna be alone again.”

Nny apparently struggled with the decision, frantically darting his eyes back and forth between you and the door, before finally letting out an annoyed grumble and collapsing back on the bed next to you.

“Why not? She hurt you, which means at best she’s another rotten septic dribble contaminating the human gene pool.”

“I just...I don’t want you to leave again, so soon. I like it when you’re with me, I don’t want it to end...”

Nny grumbled again, before sliding his arms up to wrap around your bruised ribcage as gently as one could expect from a man like him.

“I’ll bring another candy bar next time I’m here. You probably wanna hide it from Devi though, can’t have her wising up and putting locks on the windows. It’s a real bitch to clean up glass cuts, so I’d like to avoid having to putting the ‘break’ in ‘breaking and entering’”

You gave a weak chuckle and curled into him, to the best of your ability. Your body had never felt so fragile but your heart had never been so full.

You were so exhausted. So tired from everything. You couldn't have kept yourself awake if you wanted to. No, you were perfectly content to fall asleep to the sound of Nny breathing and the feeling if his fingers tracing your ribs, one by one.

In the living room, Devi had finally managed to clean up all the broken things she'd thrown at Johnny earlier in the day. It was a shame really, she threw some damn nice plates at him. After tossing all of the broken pieces in the trash, she couldn't help but to go check on you- you'd been in real bad shape when you came home and it had only gotten worse from there, with your mother practically poisoning you.

She cracked the door just slightly, hoping you were asleep. You were, you were sound asleep with that happy little smile on your lips, just like she’d hoped.

Unfortunately, Nny was also there. Devi nearly broke the door down before she heard what he was whispering to your sleeping form.

“I think I love you. It’s stupid, but I think I’d rather have you happy than dead. Psycho Doughboy would tear me a new one, but I don’t really want to kill myself when you’re here. I kind of...don’t really want to kill you anymore either. How pathetic is that? I kidnapped you specifically to hurt you, but now I can’t even do that. You’re weird. This is weird.”

She had never heard that kind of softness from Nny. His words and tone seemed alien, like she was listening to someone else talk through him.

After a moment of internally screaming, Devi decided to just let you sleep. After all, you _really_ needed it. She had intended to leave as quietly as possible so as to not alert Nny to her presence (she was still incredibly skeeved out by him) but she had completely forgotten about that damn floorboard, the one that creaked like a dying animal when it was stepped on.

You didn't stir, but Johnny did.

He curled around you like a protective mother lion. He didn’t want to leave you, but he didn’t want Devi doing anything to jeopardize his ability to stay. He slunk out of bed, and over to the door like a shadow.

It would have been so easy, to sneak up behind Devi and your mother, to sever their spinal cords and leave their bodies on the floor. No more annoying mama hurting his Doll, no more Devi getting in the way. He could bring you back home and everything would go back to how it was, when you existed only as a fixture in one of his many basement rooms.

But no, he can’t do that. It would make you sad.

So instead of giving in to his urge to kill, he simply shut the door and locked it. He’d have you to himself for a while, and you could open the door yourself when _you_ were ready for Devi to interfere with your life again. More importantly, he could keep watching you sleep, watch you be peaceful and at ease.

He wondered what you were dreaming about. He hoped you were dreaming about him.

You woke up several times throughout the night- months of waking up to people screaming had absolutely destroyed your ability to sleep peacefully. You'd fade in and out of conciousness, sometimes wondering where you were, what day it was, why your stomach hurt so much.

But sometimes you would wake, bury your face in Nny's chest and fall back asleep almost instantly. Sometimes, in the hazy moments between dreams and conciousness you could hear whispers.

It would have been unsettling, waking up to hear words you couldn't quite decipher but somehow, the faded whispers only lulled you back to sleep.

Surprisingly, it was the best sleep you had gotten in months.

Nny on the other hand, didn’t dream. He didn’t sleep at all. He hated sleep on principle anyway, but missing out on the faces you’d make when you were unconscious made him abhor the concept even more.

Sometimes you’d smile and whisper his name. He was happy in those moments. Sometimes you’d look scared, and move to cover your ears despite the silence permeating the room. He was less happy in those moments, but he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pride when you’d bury your face into his shirt when covering your ears didn’t work.

He wanted to kiss you. He hated that he wanted to kiss you. It made him sick that he might have any semblance of desire left in his mind. He couldn’t help it. He refused to give in. He hated the feeling. He loved you.

Watching the sun rise illuminate your face was a borderline religious experience for Nny. For half an hour, the only thing in the world that truly mattered was your sleeping face, washed in gold light. He wanted to exist in that moment forever, to watch you sleep through the sunrise until his body crumbled to dust.

One long finger traced the outline of your lips. Despite every other part of you being bony and sharp, here you were soft. The idea of touching another persons mouth would have normally revolted Nny. But you were different.

Nny wondered when exactly it was that you had started being special. Was it when he gave you your name? No, no, he had... _f_ _eelings_ for you long before that. Was it in the weeks he spent watching you? Seeing you float gracefully through life without ever once experiencing joy? Or was it before that- had you always been special and Nny had only just spotted you?

Regardless, he was irrevocably in love with you, as much as he hated himself for it.

He remembered the way you used to look. He remembered your glossy eyes, glazed over with apathy. The way you’d have to run to keep up with Devi and Tenna on their longer legs. He remembered your face, tear-stained and rubbed raw from the tissues piled in your trash can. He couldn’t remember why you’d been crying. If he’d asked you the night he’d seen it, you wouldn’t have been able to tell him either.

We wondered how many tearful nights he’d missed out on. How many he’d left you alone in the basement for, how many you’d had by yourself at the hand of some living mistake before he’d even laid eyes on you.

He looked at you now, with your sunken eyes and protruding skeleton. He ran a shaky hand through your thin, oily hair. He watched the way your body leaned into his touch, a sickly pile of skin and bone. Your body was only a shell of the flourishing creature it used to be, but your mind had changed entirely.

Johnny wondered if he should feel guilty. He wondered if he should feel regret for breaking you, for changing you into this new version of yourself, into this new form he’d created for you.

He decided he would never feel guilt over what he’d made of you. “They smiled for me.” He thought. He repeated those four words like a mantra, erasing any doubt from his mind. He decided he liked how the two of you had changed for each other. He liked the metamorphosis you’d forced onto each other.

And finally, he decided he liked you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doll: *is literally an emaciated corpse*  
> Nny: wow that’s hot


	10. (Almost) Homicidal, (Almost) Lovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You didn’t really expect her to get away with that, did you?

Six hours of Nny lying next to your unconscious form, and he still hadn’t gotten bored. He could have stared at you for weeks, he thought. He probably would have if given the chance, but unfortunately for him, he was interrupted by the door handle rattling, and then unlocking.

Thinking it was Devi come to check on you, he ducked under your bed as quick as he could, settling onto his stomach just in time to see your mother’s shoes step into the room. He could hear your confusion as she shook you awake, and it infuriates him, but not nearly as much as the resulting conversation.

“Wake up. We have to talk about something.”

“Hnng...huh? Mom? What’s going on? Where’s Nny?”

“I’ve thought it over throughly, and I’ve decided it’s best for you to move back in with me.”

"What? Mom- I don't, I-" you couldn't manage to string together a coherent sentence. You were too sleepy and too startled to think straight.

"You and I both know that you clearly aren't ready to be out in the real world! I mean, you move out for what, a year? And you go and get yourself kidnapped!" She strokes your cheek with practiced false tenderness. "I just want my baby at home, safe with me."

You pulled away from her, scooting up against the wall. Why did you always have to wake up to some weird shit going on? Could you not have one peaceful rest?!

"Mama..." You're afraid to tell her that you don't want to go with her, you don't think she would do anything, not with Devi in the house, but her words could be just as painful as her actions.

“What? No, I mean it. Tell me exactly what you’re wanting to say, I want to hear it. I’m just trying to protect you, you’re still just a spoiled, ungrateful child who can’t accept mommy’s help. You are coming back to the farm with me tomorrow, and that’s final.”

“But...”

“But what, child?”

“I don’t wanna go back...I wanna stay with Devi and Nny.”

The shock hurt more than the sting when her open hand collided with your cheek.

You were no stranger to pain, and there was a point in your life not too long ago when she could have hit you for an hour and you would have sat still and just let it happen. But that hadn't happened in a while, you gotten soft- spoiled by people who cared enough to touch you with (mostly) gentle hands.

The noise you let out after your mother hit you was akin to a mouse in the jaws of a snake- one pitiful squeak and then silence as your entire being is swallowed whole.

You squeaked again when you felt something hit your bed from below.

Your pained squeak turned into a terrified shriek when Nny, and then one of his blades, came into view. It was such a familiar sight, and paired with the equally familiar, wild-eyed mania painting Nny’s face, it was almost comforting.

You reached out a hand to stop him. The touch of your fingertips over his sleeve made him pause, but didn’t stop him from embedding one of his knives through your mother’s ear, pushing hard enough to stick the point a few inches into the wall behind her. She let out out a muffled sob, a sound you’d never heard from her before.

Nny left the knife where it was as she fretted over her impromptu piercing, but kept the other blade in his hand, pointing it at her threateningly as he turned back to you.

“You ok?”

You held out your arms, and when he scooped you up in his, you whispered to him that you were.

"What the FUCK!" Your mother wailed. You had seen her in hysterics before but never had you seen her look so completely powerless. If you were a mouse in the jaws of a snake, she was a snake with its tail crushed under a rock.

"I'm not going back mama." You say with more resolve than you thought you were capable of. "I'm... I'm gonna take that out," you point at the knife still pinning her ear to the wall. "And you're gonna leave. And-and you're not gonna bother me again, okay?"

Her gaze flickers between you and Nny.

"You two deserve each other." She says. You dont respond, choosing to instead just reach out and yank the knife from her cartilage as smoothly as you can.

You wince at the sight of her tucking tail and running out of the apartment...with her earlobe missing, and a trail of blood behind her. You dropped the knife, letting it clatter to the floor. Nny looked at you, then at the knife, then at the blood, then at your mother’s missing earlobe still stuck to the wall, then back to you.

He burst out laughing.

“Ha...hahahaha! Oh my fucking god, that was beautiful! Did you see her face when you took the knife? Priceless! Absolutely priceless! Man, I was just gonna leave her there and take you home, but that was so worth it!”

You didn’t know how you felt about the situation. On the one hand, you’d permanently severed your ties to your biological family, but on the other hand...well, you’d permanently severed your ties to your biological family. You thought about it, and started giggling along with Nny.

“It...it really is funny isn’t it? She never listened to me...and now she’s gonna have trouble listening to anyone!”

Nny laughed harder, practically whooping with glee.

“I hadn’t even thought about that! Holy shit, you made it better! That’s some sense of justice you’ve got there, Doll!”

You giggle until your stomach aches and your head spins. Nny is happy and so are you and all is right with the world again.

"Hey, Buddy I think I just saw your mom in the hallway, are you- OH FOR FUCKS SAKE." Devi shouted from the entrance to the apartment. "Buddy why is there blood on the floor?" Devi was advancing quickly towards your room but you and Nny both froze like deer in headlights.

Devi took one cursory glance at the room, in all its bloody glory. Her face went pale, and she punched Nny hard enough to send him toppling headfirst over the bed.

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!”

You grabbed at Devi’s shirt, trying to rip her attention away from Nny.

“Don’t hurt him! He was protecting me!”

Now that got her attention.

"My mom, she came and she wanted to make me leave and I told her," you gasp for breath, all this excitement is making it hard for you to fill your lungs. "I told her 'no, I'm gonna stay here,' and she... and she..." You paused- in the years that you and Devi had been friends, you had never revealed the truth about your mothers treatment towards you.

Keeping it a secret was a sort of comfort for you, like you could get through anything and turn out just fine if you had survived through all that. But, all secrets come to light eventually, and there's no time like the present.

"She hit me, Devi. She hit me." Her expression instantly softens at your admission. "Nny was just protecting me from her, I swear Devi."

Devi looked shocked. You could see emotions flash across her face. Fear, rage, and sorrow, before finally settling on concern. She grabbed you by the shoulders and looked you in the eyes, gritting her teeth with every word.

“She did what?”

"She hit me, she slapped me right across the face." You say and for the first time in your life it finally sinks in that your mother just hit you. Devi's concern and Nny's rage weren't unfamiliar to you but seeing them as a reaction to your mother was entirely new.

For all of your childhood, adults in your family would turn a blind eye ehen your mother would yank on your hair or push you around. Teachers at school wouldn't notice (or if they did, wouldn't say) the bruises and the scrapes. Up until now, no one had ever reacted to your mothers blatant violence. And honestly? It was a crushing feeling.

You begin to sob, you crumple slowly to your knees as you repeat over and over again, "she hit me, she hit me, she hit me."

Devi shushed you, awkwardly leading you back to your bed and patting your back. Nny climbed up next to you, doing his best to hold you with Devi either pushing him back or shooting him death glares.

“Devi, it’s ok really...it doesn’t even hurt that much...”

“Fuck that, she hit you!”

“You know I could probably still catch up with her...” Nny chimed, uncomfortably gleeful about the idea of being unattended with a weapon near your mom.

“No...no...no.” You said. “Just...just stay here, I need you to be here right now.”

Nny complied with minimal grumbling, and Devi begrudgingly allowed him to pull your shaking form into his lap.

You were exhausted again (at this point, when weren't you?) but despite that, your mind felt clearer than it had in a long time. Maybe it was the people you care about protecting you, maybe it was seeing your mothers ear sliced in half and finally feeling like you had acheived some semblance of retribution, either way, something in the days events left you feeling... lighter.

Not better necessarily, no the only thing that had ever made you feel better was Nny. But, lighter.

It was nice to be cared for again. Nny always took care of you when someone was hurting you. He had his skinny arms wrapped entirely around your body, resting his chin on the top of your head. One of his knives, the not-bloody one, was still attached to his hip, sharp and pointed like the both of you were.

“I’m taking them back home tonight.” Declared Nny, much to your delight.

“No the fuck you’re not.” Replied Devi, much to your chagrin.

“But Devi!” Whined Nny, giving her the most watery, pleading pair of puppy eyes he could manage. “Think about it, the crazy mama is bound to come back for them! But she won’t find them if they’re at home with me!”

You looked up at her, weakly.

“Please Devi? I wanna go home...”

Devi held her stone face for a second, but broke quickly at your broken-sounding tone.

“Fine. But I’m coming too, and they _are not_ and will not be put back in the basement, for any reason, ever.”

You and Nny nodded in sync.

“Deal!”

The walk to 777 was long and tedious. You had to stop and rest often, and Devi insisted that you take a break to stop somewhere and eat something seeing as there wasn't a single restaurant in a ten mile radius that wouldn't make your heart give out, Devi told you and Nny to wait outside the 8-12 while she found something suitable for your weak stomach.

At first you were surprised she would so willingly leave you alone with Nny, but then you thought 'I mean, what's he gonna do, kidnap me again? Devi would know where we went, she'd find us.' So you decided to just relax and sit in a tiny patch of grass outside the convenience store.

You titled your head up, towards the sky and let the sunlight drown you. It had been so long since you'd gotten to feel the sun on your face. It would be summer soon, and then there would be sun constantly. You hoped Nny would sit outside in the sunlight with you.

The sun was barely over the horizon, but that just made the yellow-orange streaks of light stand out against the blue-black sky. You leaned against Nny. He seemed uncomfortable with the position, but placed his hand on your shoulder anyway. The electric doorbell of the 8-12 rang out through the comfortable silence, and Devi appeared behind you with a few bags of chips. Low fat, low sodium, low everything.

“Heavy food did not work out in our favor, so here’s the opposite. Don’t eat too fast, ok? If you choke we’re all kind of fucked.”

You sat there in the grass for another fifteen minutes, working on eating your chips. They made your stomach feel like you had swallowed rocks but it was nowhere near the pain of the Scrambled Egg Disaster your mother had fed you.

You were so focused on your chips that you completley missed the threatening gazes and gestures Devi made at Johnny.

If looks could kill, Johnny would have been dead long ago. Not that he could actually die, but that’s beside the point. Devi, through a complex series of hand gestures and angry looks, conveyed to Nny a very clear picture of what would happen to him if you got hurt under his care.

Johnny didn’t fear for his life, but in that moment, he did fear for his teeth.

You managed most of the chips, offering the last one to Devi, who took it with a somewhat melancholy smile. The pair helped you to your feet, then continued your journey home.

It was nice to have your feet touch the the floor of the house again, even if the floor was a ratty carpet with bloodstains every other step. Heaven or not, 777 was definitely home.

You yawned and stretched, your fragile joints crackling like an open fire. The stench of blood and rot had made you ill when you first got here but now it just smelled like safety.

"I'm really," you pause to yawn again. "I'm really tired guys. I'm gonna go to bed." You were struggling to keep yourself on your feet but you powered through and made your way towards the basement door.

Devi cleared her throat, stopping you in your tracks.

"Oh! Right... No basement... Ah. Where should I...?" You look to Nny for guidance. He pauses for a moment before suddenly getting an idea.

"Wait here!" He says, and bolts down the stairs. When he returns (a surprisingly short amount of time later) he's carrying your blanket.

He tossed it over your shoulders like a cloak, then took your hand and excitedly pulled you down a hall, then stopped in front of a door. He crossed his arms behind his back, looking giddy like a kid at Christmas. You opened the door, and were greeted with a bedroom just as shabby as the rest of the house. Not that you minded, especially once you realized that it was Nny’s room, and he was sharing it with you.

You looked at Nny, who gestured to the room in a “Well, go on!” motion. The bed looked comfy enough, so you flopped onto it, still wrapped in your blanket. The bed smelled like Nny, like junk food and metal.

You smushed your face against the mattress, and then turned to look at Nny.

Devi thought she might puke if she had to keep looking at you two acting like any part of this was normal -or god forbid- romantic. But in spite of the knots of worry and rage battling it out in her stomach, she stood in the doorway snd watched as Nny pounced up onto the bed with you, clambering around in search of the perfect position to lay in.

Devi had the fleeting thought that he acted sort of like a cat, before getting distracted by the sight of you oh-so-gently cupping Nny's cheek and guiding him down towards you so that you could cling to him.

Devi scowled, made a gagging noise, and leaned against the doorframe. She refused to step within 5 feet of the display you and Nny were putting on, opting to simply stand near the pair of you and express disgust.

Not that either of you cared, you were just happy to be back home and together.

Devi picked up on your lack of shame and walked back to the living room, sitting on the couch. She stared at the crate of nails in the corner of the room. She stared at the shadeless lamp on top of it, the dead bug next to it, and...dear god is that a rabbit nailed to the wall behind it?

Devi did not like this house.

You on the other hand, couldn't feel more at home. Or more in love for that matter.

You wanted so badly to kiss Johnny, to show him how much you love him and how happy you are to be home. But you don't, you know how averse he is to touching of any kind and you weren't going to try to push your luck.

You were just grateful to look at him, and to play with his hair, and to love him.

Sleep comes easier in Johnny's bed than it has in any other place you've ever slept. Something about the familiar scent, and the feeling of Nny's thin arms tangled with your own just soothed you in ways you didn't know a person could be soothed.

By the time Devi returns to the room to check on you, you're already fast asleep.

Devi didn’t like the idea of leaving, but she knew she couldn’t hover forever. But she had an idea to help keep you happy, or at least give you some connection to the outside world while you were here.

You had two dolls in your closet. A porcelain doll your grandmother had given you, one of the really traditional kinds with a fancy outfit and a pretty hairdo made from your own hair clippings. The other had been a joint gift from her and Tenna on your last birthday, a posable off-brand Barbie that Devi had repainted to look like you.

She figured if you couldn’t ever be your old self, you could at least have some memory of who they were. With you dreaming softly, and Nny watching you like a mother bear watches a sleeping cub, Devi slipped out the door and walked back to her apartment on a mission.

The house was quiet, aside from the occasional, oddly comforting muffled scream from the basement below. It was calm, you were home, and all was well.

Until the doorbell rang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arc one done babey! Now the real fun begins.


	11. Stalkers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He hasn’t died yet in this universe.

Johnny couldn’t think of a single thing that could have pissed him off more than being interrupted in the middle of watching you sleep. Well, he could think of a few things, but this was definitely up there.

He proved himself wrong upon seeing a pimply, grinning face staring at him through the window. Johnny opened the door ever-so-slightly, malice and annoyance pouring off of him in waves.

“Who the hell are you?”

“You don’t know me, but you’ll want to! See, we have a lot in common, you and I. I’ve wanted to talk to you for so long! My name’s Jimmy, but you can call me ‘Mmy’, get it? I also like being called ‘Darkness’, pretty cool huh? Anyhow, I’ve been following you.”

“How lovely.” Said Johnny, deadpan.

The guy seemed harmless, If amazingly creepy, even by Nny’s standards. Or at least, he seemed harmless until Nny spotted the shivering form huddled behind the guy.

They were the spitting image of how you used to be. Not exactly, they were a bit shorter, had a rounder face and a more pointed nose, and different colored eyes. But the resemblance was there, and it made Nny do a double take.

“—and this,” Said Jimmy, pulling this new person onto the front stoop with more force than necessary, “is Gem!”

“My name’s Sam.” Said the annoyed, clearly angry person.

“No it’s not!” Barked Jimmy, before regaining his illusion of composure. “Your name. Is Gem.”

'Gem' scowled, but didn't bother correcting him a second time. That was when Nny noticed the handcuffs. Not one, but two pairs were fastened tightly to their wrists—one holding their hands together, and one pair locking them to Jimmy’s wrist. It seemed a bit excessive, even to Nny. He was getting some really fucked up vibes from these two. Why couldn't he ever seem to just watch you without being interrupted by some asshole? At the thought of you, Nny decided he'd had enough of this weirdo and the person in handcuffs.

"Okay, well I'm going back to my-" Nny had tried to close the door as he spoke but Jimmy quickly pushed the door open and forced his way inside, dragging Sam by the chain of their handcuffs.

“I’m a huge fan of your work!” Said Jimmy.

“My...work.” Said Nny, confused, but still deadpan.

“He’s a fucking true crime whore who thinks you creepy serial killers are hot.” Said Gem.

“Of course.” Said Nny, externally.

“Just my shitty fucking luck to have some creepy fanboy wannabe land on my doorstep.” Said Nny, internally.

Johnny was about 3 seconds away from shoving this creep out the window, or perhaps just beheading him right there, when possibly the most unfortunate thing possible happened.

You stepped out of his room.

“Nny? Nny where did you go...?”

Johnny was about to tell you to go back, he didn’t want you to be exposed to this piece of human filth. But Jimmy cut him off before he could say anything.

“You have a pet! Or are they a toy? Either way, I have one too, see?!”

He yanked Sam forward and presented them to Nny like a prize winning dog. Nny was less than impressed. You weren't a pet, or a toy. You were just... his Doll. And Sam was also less than enthusiastic about being paraded around like a show pony.

"For fucks sake, let me go already you asshole!" They shouted, trying to pull away from Jimmy.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but, Nny, who are these people?" You asked, becoming more concerned by the second. Could you not have a single day of peace without someone scary showing up at your home?!

“Nobody important.” Said Nny, firmly. He punctuated the sentence by staring Jimmy in the eyes, in a feeble attempt to drive home the point of his insignificance.

You picked up on the tension instantly. Instinctively, you wrapped a hand around Nny’s upper arm, standing halfway behind him. He seemed on-guard, one foot sliding in front of where you stood.

Jimmy ignored your presence completely. ‘Gem’, as you’d heard them be called, locked eyes with you and glanced at the open door, to which you cocked your head in confusion. Were they asking you to leave? Why would you want to do that?

“...and anyway—“ continued Jimmy, droning on as if anyone was listening.

Gem seemed equally confused by your lack of understanding. They glanced up at Nny, then back at you, subtly nodding to the door. You just shook your head and retreated further behind Nny.

"Yours is really shy, not like my Gem though! Y'know, I decided to keep Gem because I heard about the missing person that had been seen around here, I figured if you were gonna keep a pet then I should too!" Jimmy just did not seem to grasp how much everyone in the room hated him at that moment. But Sam was quick to express their own feelings on the matter.

"I'm not your fucking pet, you pervert! I'm a human being!" They snarled.

Jimmy responded to this by laughing, fucking laughing in Gem’s face as if their pleas to be listened to was some sort of funny joke. The look on their face when he placed his free hand on their waist was the face of someone who was, for lack of a better term, About To Fucking Snap.

Johnny nearly gagged at the very idea that this guy thought he and his...victim were anywhere near comparable to him and his Doll.

Gem wriggled out of Jimmy’s grasp and sidled up to you, as close as their handcuff chains would let them. They whispered at you a very frightening set of sentences.

“We should try to escape, maybe we’d have a chance together!”

“I’m not leaving him.”

“What? Cmon, don’t you hate him? I hate this one. I hate what he feeds me, I hate how he talks about me, I hate these fucking handcuffs, and I hate how he always insists on touching me!”

That startled you, enough to make you squeak in fear and retreat further behind your c̶a̶p̶t̶o̶r̶ savior. Sam looked shocked, then pissed.

“Fine, I’ll just fucking figure out how to escape on my own, and leave you behind!” They said.

“Thank you.” You responded.

“Wow!” Said Jimmy, much to everyone’s annoyance. “Yours is so polite! How’d you do it? Mine won’t shut up, it flinches away when I try to kiss it, and it won’t even let me use it’s name! You gotta teach me your secrets.”

Nny looked like he was about to blow up.

"My 'secret' is to not be so fucking disgusting." Johnny snapped. In an uncharacteristic moment of bravery (brought on by the intense urge to calm and defend Nny) you spoke up.

"I didn't know my name so I asked Nny to give one to me. Uhm... It seems to me like they," you nod to Sam. "They know their name and they'd rather use that one."

"And if they flinch when you try to kiss them? Maybe keep your filthy fucking mouth away from them." Nny snarled. He didn't like that this had upset you to the point where you were willingly speaking to strangers.

“Yeah, pervert. Listen to the fucking serial killer you keep creaming your pants over, call me by my fucking name, and keep your FILTHY FUCKING HANDS OFF OF ME!”

Jimmy seemed surprised that Nny took your (and Sam’s) side. He huffed, immediately defensive once he realized he was outnumbered.

“Oh cmon, it’s not like you haven’t done the same thing! I saw you breaking into their room!”

You held onto Nny’s arm, and in that moment you were the only thing grounding him, and the only thing preventing Jimmy from becoming a pile of guts on the floor. You could feel him shaking with rage, and you knew, even without looking, that his eye was twitching.

“I would never touch them, or ANYONE, like that! You sick embodiment of human filth! I may be an asshole, but you are EVERY SHIT-CAKED INCH OF THE INTESTINAL SYSTEM!”

He took a step forward, but tilted his arm back so you could stay where you were without letting go. Jimmy took a step back, pulling Sam with him, causing them to stumble and curse at him.

“You’re disgusting. You didn’t even have the decency to kill them when they asked, did you?”

“But...but I—“

“Out.”

“What?!”

“OUT! The only reason, THE ONLY FUCKING REASON you aren’t SPLATTERED ON THE FLOOR RIGHT NOW, is that my Doll, who I actually GIVE A SHIT ABOUT has had a long day, and doesn’t need the memory of some HUMAN SHIT STAIN haunting them. So get. Out.”

Jimmy took off running, blubbering about how unfair this all was, with Sam stumbling close behind.

"That was... bad. That was a very bad experience." You say softly. Nny turns back to look at you. You're more weary than usual. He's pissed beyond belief thst that fucker had the audacious to ruin his and Doll's night and also make some pretty disgusting assumptions about your relationship.

"Yeah. That was fucked." Nny said. He was still absolutely boiling with rage but seeing your exhaustion cooled him down slightly. "Let's get you back to bed, Doll."

You rubbed your eyes sleepily and nodded in agreement.

You fell over on your first step, still weak from malnourishment and exhausted from your trip over. Nny, as carefully as he could, tucked his arm under your knees and scooped you up. It barely took 10 steps to get back to the bedroom with his long legs, but once he’d dropped you back on the bed, he left again.

You were ok with it. You knew he wasn’t leaving. You knew he would sit in the living room talking to himself like he usually did, and you’d be safe in your room with the blanket he gave you because he’d be there, on the other side of the wall, protecting you.

Johnny on the other hand, was not ok with the events that had just transpired. Neither was Nailbunny, apparently.

“Your Doll is upset. You should comfort them.”

“They’re ok. They’re better off without me right now. I have to think about stuff.”

“What stuff?”

“That...sick...human...creature accused me of touching Doll.”

“But you do touch them. You carried them down the hall, just now!”

“I think he meant...touching touching.”

“Oh. Well that is another story altogether isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I don’t like it.”

“What if they asked, though?”

“What.”

“Your Doll, and you, as much as you refuse to admit it, are human. What will you do if they want to...’do the touching’ as I recall you saying?”

Well wasn't that one hell of a question. Nny hated a lot of things, and right now he especially hated that he didn't know the answer to that. So he deflected.

"They don't want that. We're different. We're not like that." Johnny insisted.

"Maybe not. But if they did want that, can you honestly say you don't want it too? And is it bad for you to do so, even with their consent, considering the circumstances of your relationship?"

Nny hated two things in that moment: not knowing the answer to those questions, and Nail Bunny, for asking said questions.

Johnny found himself in a conundrum. He’d never want to touch another human being in any way, shape, or form under normal circumstances. But, these circumstances weren’t exactly normal, were they?

Nny had ignored the less-than-savory implications of him romancing someone he’d been keeping prisoner by telling himself that as long as you were happy (or at least, happier than before) and he wasn’t doing anything... wrong in that way, it couldn’t be that bad, right?

He didn’t want to hurt you anymore. He didn’t want to make you scared of him like that. His nail found his mouth and he bit down hard, chewing the thing into oblivion as he found himself falling down a mental rabbit hole of paranoia.

He came out of the hole with one question, and a particularly upsetting one at that.

What if you did want that?

Even more troublingly...would that make him want it?!

Johnny paced up and down the living room for a couple hours having a slight nervous breakdown about the whole situation. He wanted to go to you, too watch you sleep and absorb the peaceful expression on your face, but seeing you would only make this worse, so to distract himself he ventured down into the basement.

He had lost track of time entirely when he heards the doorbell ring. When he got upstairs, the sun was out again, not setting like it had been when he went downstairs. He really hoped it wasn't that Dirty Bastard at his door again, he was fully prepared to drag Jimmy kicking and screaming into the basement.

But it wasn't him. It was Devi. Holding two... dolls?

Devi pushed past him with a curt “Not for you.”

She strided confidently over to his (your?) room, and woke you up gently.

“Buddy, hey wake up, I have something for you!”

“Devi?”

“Yeah! I brought you a gift, those two dolls you’re so attached to. I can’t stay long, I have work, but I wanted you to have them with you, ok?”

“Ok! Thank you Devi.”

“Sure, Bud.”

And with that, she was gone, harshly bumping into Nny on her way out. Nny, ever curious about the inner workings of every aspect of your life, spied on you.

You were sitting cross-legged in the center of the bed, both of the dolls propped up to look at you. You were talking to them like a little kid, and Nny found it adorable. He’d seen you do it before, whenever you had something on your mind.

What he didn’t know, was that this time, they were talking back.

“W̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶g̶u̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶!̶ ̶Y̶o̶u̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶t̶ ̶J̶o̶h̶n̶n̶y̶ ̶k̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶h̶i̶m̶.̶” Said the porcelain doll.

Y̴o̴u̴ ̸s̸h̸o̵u̵l̵d̴ ̸j̴u̸s̶t̸ ̶b̸e̴ ̸g̵l̴a̶d̴ ̸t̷h̴a̸t̶ ̸h̸e̷’̸s̸ ̵g̵o̴n̷e̶.̵ ̴J̴o̶h̷n̷n̷y̸ ̸w̶o̵u̷l̸d̵ ̵h̷a̵v̴e̸ ̴n̴e̵v̴e̸r̴ ̴l̸e̷t̸ ̵y̵o̵u̶ ̴g̵e̷t hurt anyway. Said the plastic doll.

“I know.” You said to both of them.

You weren’t used to your dolls talking back when you spoke to them, but with all the crazy shit that happened in this house?

The fact that you’d gone crazy was barely a surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Broke: Jimmy/Gem  
> Woke: Johnny/Doll  
> Bespoke: Plastic/Nailbunny
> 
> Also, don’t worry, you haven’t seen the last of him. Or more accurately, he hasn’t seen the last of you. (:


	12. Revengeance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It wouldn’t be like Nny to let something like that go unpunished, especially with how upset it made you.

Johnny went back to the basement to take out a few of his more bottled-up frustrations. You remained in bed, having a nice heart-to-heart with your dolls, or perhaps with yourself. You couldn’t tell, and you didn’t care.

I̶t̶’̶s̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶g̶r̶o̶s̶s̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶.̶ ̶Y̶o̶u̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶l̶e̶a̶v̶e̶,̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶w̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶c̶l̶e̶a̶n̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶e̶t̶s̶.̶ Said Porcelain.

T̷h̸a̸t̵’̶s̸ ̶a̵w̸f̵u̷l̷!̶ ̸Y̵o̵u̷ ̶s̸h̷o̶u̴l̶d̸ ̵b̶e̴ ̶h̴a̴p̸p̵y̷,̷ ̶t̸h̶i̸s̴ ̸i̸s̸ ̵J̶o̷h̷n̷n̴y̸’̷s̷ ̴h̸o̷u̶s̵e̵ ̶a̴n̷d̶ ̵h̸e̴’̸s̴ ̶l̶e̶t̸ting you stay here! Said Plastic.

“I don’t want to go anywhere.” You said. “I like Johnny, and I like this room. It smells like him, and this bed is very comfortable.”

Still, you've been here for months. You should go somewhere!

“Even if I wanted to, where would I go?”

You should find that Sam person. They seemed very upset about the whole thing.

“Maybe you’re right. They didn’t seem like a bad person or anything. I’ll ask Johnny when he comes back upstairs.”

And ask you did.

"I think we should help them. That person in handcuffs, from yesterday." Before Johnny could respond you had already begun defending your statement. "They were so angry and... I think that guy was definitely hurting them. We can't just *let* bad things like that happen can we? Well we can but we shouldn't. We have the power to help them and so... so we should do it! I don't think that man would really listen if we tried to tslk him into letting them go but... He seems to really like you so, maybe you could distract him and I could help get them away from him!"

Nny put a hand on his face, tapping his chin in mock-thought.

“By ‘distract him’ do you mean ‘cut him open lengthwise and pin his organs to the wall one-by-one like they’re butterflies and I’m some weirdo who collects bug corpses’?

You blinked, then giggled. That’s your Nny, good to know that hasn’t changed.

“Whatever works!”

“Fantastic! I’ll call Devi, I don’t have a car but I know she does!”

“Doesn’t Devi disapprove of murder though?”

“She doesn’t have to know about that part!”

You hopped out of bed, only stumbling slightly when you landed. The full 11 hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep you had gotten did wonders for your body. But, you were still pretty fucking hungry. You would think about asking for food later, once you had rescued Sam.

Devi's first reaction to hearing Nny's voice when she picked up the phone was panic. Then rage. 

"Why the fuck are you calling me at 7:30 in the morning? So help me God if you did something to Buddy I'll-"

"I'm okay Devi!" You said into the receiver. 

"We just wabted to ask you for a teeeeensy little favor." Johnny said.

“We need a ride!” You piped, guessing that Devi would be more receptive to you than she’d be to Nny.

“...where?”

“We need to follow a guy!” Johnny barked into the receiver.

“...why?” Said Devi.

“He’s got someone with him who hates him! He sucks!”

“Is Johnny gonna kill him?”

“We’re gonna rescue the other one!” You said, refusing to either confirm or deny the whole killing thing.

“...fine.” Said Devi.

She was on your front step within minutes.

The sight of you and Nny answering the door hand in hand made her want to barf, but she endured it. If not for your sake then for the sake of whoever it was that you were going to 'rescue'. Devi had insisted that you sit in the passenger seat and Nny sit in the back seat. Well, she had suggested that Nny stay in the trunk but neither of you were particularly receptive to that idea.

As Devi pulled away from 777, she turned and asked you, "so where exactly are we going?"

You let out a little nervous laugh.

"Hah.. ha... about that..."

"We need you to drive around until we see A Guy and then we need to follow that Guy home so we can rescue the person he kidnapped!" Nny cheerfully explained.

"Huh. That sounds kind of familiar." Devi said through gritted teeth, her grip on the steering wheel tightening. How could you both see your own situation in others and understand that its *fucked up* but not be able to see it in yourselves?

You reached into the backseat to hold Nny’s hand, and had Devi not had her eyes placed firmly on The Road, she would have done a full 180 neck crack and scowled at him for taking your hand. 

But she didn’t want you (or herself for that matter) to be dead, so she continued on until you found “A Guy” and a someone.

You’d caught them just as they started to enter an apartment building, and once they entered, you and Nny followed. Devi stayed in the still-on car, and you made a joke about her being a getaway driver that made Johnny laugh. You were happy about that.

The pair of you snuck into the building, keeping as quiet as possible. You were on a mission, wanting to separate this creep and his seemingly innocent victim. Nny just liked playing spy. 

You waited a minute after the other two went through a room door before following. 

“Wow.” Said Johnny. “A studio apartment? And here I was thinking I was bad, but *nobody* deserves to be locked up in a studio apartment.”

You heard a rustling, and quietly stalked over to a suspicious lump on the couch.

The lump turned out to be Sam, chained to a wall and frozen in shock and fear at the sight of you and Nny. You put a finger to your lips in a shushing motion, silently asking them to stay quiet. They nodded, and pointed to a half-open door leading to the bathroom. 

Johnny grinned, and walked over to the door, not bothering to be quiet anymore.

After all, he wanted this creep to know *exactly* what was about to happen.

You worked at getting Sam free from their chains. It was a lot more difficult than Seth had made it seem. At least, it was difficult to do so *quietly.* You had been operating under the assumption that this was more of a stealth mission. Nny clearly had not gotten the memo.

He slammed his fist against against the bathroom door. 

"Hey asshole open up! I wanna talk to you!" Sam seemed alarmed when they noticed the comically large knife Nny had brought, but you redirected their focus to the task at hand, being a bit less quiet now that you knew this wasn't going to be done sneakily.

Despite the new freedom to be loud, you still struggled to free them from their chains.

"He keeps the key with him all the time," Sam tells you.

Nny seemed unaffected by this revelation. He instead opted to simply kick the flimsy bathroom door down, and shove the knife into Jimmy’s stomach before he’d even had the time to pull up his pants.

You covered Sam’s eyes with your hands, and looked away. Sam plugged their ears with their own hands, but you were left exposed to the gory display taking place in the room next to you.

Not that you minded, in fact it was kind of sweet how aggressive Nny was getting over this guy making you uncomfortable.

By the time Jimmy’s screaming, Nny’s hysterical laughing, and the unnerving squelch and scrape of cold steel against soft organs and brittle bone, had died down, Johnny was smiling again.

You liked that smile. Even drenched in blood, with a wild grin and twitching eyes, dilated pupils the size of dinner plates, a dripping silver knife in his shaking hand, and a mass of shredded human carnage in his wake, you liked his smile.

You liked *him*.

Nny tossed you the shackle keys, and you undid the claps as quickly as you could. Still shielding their eyes, you led Sam out of the apartment, then down the hall, then out to the car.

Devi took one look at Nny’s bloody coat and slammed her head on the steering wheel.

You ushered Sam into the passenger seat, opting to sit in the back with Nny to more comfortably hold his hand. 

"Where do you want us to drop you off?" You asked Sam. You assumed Devi would have asked herself, but she was too preoccupied beating her head against the steering wheel.

"Uhm. My... my moms house. She lives by that park, y'know the shitty one with the broken fountain and all that graffiti?"

Devi shook her head. 

“No idea, hon.”

“Just fucking FLOOR IT THAT WAY!” Yelled Johnny, pointing some random direction, obviously high off the adrenaline. 

“You know what? Fine. Fucking, fine. You can handle your own mistakes.” Said Devi, following Nny’s pointing finger.

Somehow the idiot managed to lead the car to a police station, where he promptly shoved Sam out of the car and onto the sidewalk, before shutting (and locking) the door.

“Now we go home.” He said, firmly.

Devi ignored him and turned to you.

"Buddy, have you eaten at all since last night?"

You cleared your throat, trying to buy yourself a little bit of time to come up with a response that wouldn't make Devi mad at Johnny but *would* result in you getting something to eat.

"No, but-" Devi doesn't even let you finish your sentence before she slams on the gas, scaring the absolute shit out of you.

"Are you fucking serious? I ask you to do one thing Johnny, one god damn thing! Keep Buddy fed. And you can't even fucking do that!" She shouted.

Well, you had failed at preventing Devi's anger but it was possible that you could still get a meal out of this! 

"It's my own fault Devi, I insisted we go rescue Sam as soon as I woke up, Nny was just doing what I asked him to do!" Your persistent defense of Johnny's deplorable behavior was grating, but Devi just clenched the steering wheel harder and kept driving. 

If Nny wasn't going to feed you, then she would just have to do it herself.

Devi gritted her teeth.

“We. Are going. To the fucking. McNaldos. And getting you. A burger.”

“Can I-“ Said Nny.

“No.” Said Devi.

“But I didn’t even-“

“No.” She reiterated.

You just leaned back in your seat and reached back to hold Nny’s hand again. You were exhausted. You were hungry. You were tired of all this *excitement* in your life. You just wanted to go home and snuggle with Nny. But having burgers with him and Devi sounded ok too. 

Devi made Johnny leave his bloody coat in the car. She also told you to go sit down while she got you some “goddamn fucking food for once”. You sat in a booth, and leaned onto Nny, resting your head on his shoulder.

He smelled like metal, and sweat. It wasn’t quite the smell you were used to, but you loved it anyway. It did smell like him after all, and what else could you ask for?

Devi came with a burger and fries and told you to eat. You started with the fries. You handled chips pretty well last time, and fries are basically thick chips, right?

You managed to eat most of them without any difficulty, the real trouble came when you started on your burger. You weren't sure if it was something to do with how greasy it was, or the amount of tomato slices in it, or if it was the fact that Devi and Nny were both watching you eat in total silence, but something about the whole situation just made you feel queasy. 

You put the burger back down and finished off your fries.

Devi sighed, but accepted it. She picked up the burger and bit into it, waiting until you’d finished eating before asking, “Still hungry?”

You nodded. She stood up and went back to the counter, and came back with another order of fries. You picked at those as best you could, still somewhat put off about food from *something* about that fucking burger.

When you couldn't eat any more, you leaned your head against Nny's shoulder and closed your eyes, slipping into the state between sleep and conciousness. 

"If they're not gonna eat it-" 

"No."

"You didn't let me finish! Again!"

"You don't deserve to be able to finish a sentence."

You giggled at your friends’ antics. You liked being together with them, even if they did bicker to no end. You smiled through the rest of the meal, and the rest of the way home.

And you smiled when Nny fell into bed next to you, finally alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOT KNIFE EXPERIMENT: My Sharpened Blades vs Some Creepy Fuckboy


End file.
